Z06I OZ 100 



OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



Europe and Bible Lands... 

Sketches of Travel in Northern 
Europe and Palestine. 

Wanderings in Bible Lands... 

Observations of Journeys in Ita- 
ly, Greece, Asia Minor, the Holy 
Land and Egypt. 

The Seven Churches of Asia... 

As They Were and Are. 
Girdling the Globe... 

A Record of a Journey Around 
the World. 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES 



A SERIES OF PLAIN ARGUMENTS 



The Abundant Evidences of the Truth of the 
Holy Scriptures, Drawn from 
Various Sources. 



- V BY 

A 

D . 1_- MILLER 

Author of " Wanderings in Bible Lands, 1 ' "Girdling the Globe.'''' Etc. 



First Edition 



Elgin, III., U. S. A.: 
BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE, 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two COW (iS RECEIVER 

OCT. 20 t.G&S. 

CLASS^ XXa No 
COPY 8. 



Entered According to Act of Congress, and Copyrighted by 
D. I MILLER. 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



THE AUTHOR 

DEDICATES THIS BOOK TO 

ALL WHO LOVE THE TRUTH, 

AND WHO ARE 
WILLING TO SEARCH FOR IT. 



/ 



Table of Contents. 



CHAPTER ONE. 
Introduction, 13 

CHAPTER TWO. 
A Brief Historical Sketch of the Old Testament, 19 

CHAPTER THREE. 
A Historical Sketch of the New Testament 29 

CHAPTER FOUR. 
The English Bible.... w 43 

CHAPTER FIVE. 
The Antiquity and Genuineness of the Bible. 47 

CHAPTER SIX. 
The Word of Prophecy, 62 

CHAPTER SEVEN. 
Prophecies Concerning God's Chosen People, 69 

CHAPTER EIGHT. 
The Destruction of Jerusalem, 100 

CHAPTER NINE. 
Babylon the Great City, 131 

CHAPTER TEN. 
Nineveh and Tyre, 164 

CHAPTER ELEVEN. 
Prophecies Concerning the Coming of Christ 184 

CHAPTER TWELVE. 
Miracles of the New Testament 201 



vi 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN. 
Resurrection of Jesus Christ, 215 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN. 
The Epiphanies of Our Risen Lord, 243 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN. 
Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God 265 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN. 
The Agreement Between the Land and the Book, 286 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. 
The Conclusion, 365 



PREFACE. 



There is no lack of books on the evidences of 
Christianity, nor of arguments and facts which dem- 
onstrate the authenticity and genuineness of the Holy 
Bible. Since the days of Keith and Paley this im- 
portant and extensive field of research has been worked 
over again and again with painstaking care, and au- 
thors, using as a basis the incomparable works of 
these modern pioneers in research, have given us 
numerous volumes on the important subject. These 
works have been, for the most part, written for the 
minister and scholar rather than for the laity and 
the common people. There are hundreds of learned 
books, bulky and costly, profound and too deep for 
the unlearned, treating on the evidences, but the or- 
dinary reader finds them obscure and not easily un- 
derstood. The masses of the people will neither buy 
nor read them, and so remain uninformed as to the 
abundant evidences of the truth of God's Book. 

The purpose of the author in this book is to give 
a brief and simple statement of some of the most 
important evidences which have led godly men, who 
have carefully gone over the ground, to accept the 
Bible as the Word of God. The writer does not 
claim originality for this work. It should be regard- 



8 



PREFACE. 



ed as a compilation of facts gathered from many 
sources. What is commonly called originality is on- 
ly a rearrangement of the colors on the can- 
vas. The wise man said there is nothing new 
under the sun. The author has not sought for the 
new and novel, but rather for such an arrangement 
of what we already have as will bring the facts with- 
in the easy reach of the people. As to how far he 
has succeeded in his purpose, the kind reader must 
be the judge. 

If we are to meet the growing evil of skepticism 
we must place in the hands of our people, old and 
young alike, the testimony in our possession of the 
truth of God's Book. In this way they may be pre- 
pared, when approached with the sophistical argu- 
ments of infidelity, to meet the enemies of the truth. 

It is true, as Keith says, that the light of evidence, 
though sufficient to dispel the cloud of the under- 
standing, is yet unable to penetrate the veil of the 
heart. Skepticism at best is not a subject for boast- 
ing. It is easy to exclude the noonday light from 
our eyes; and it is easy to resist the clearest truth 
by hardening our heart against it. Into what else 
can the want of conviction be resolved than into the 
scriptural solution of the difficulty — an evil heart of 
unbelief? It is most difficult to get people to believe 
who have set their hearts against believing. They 
will not come to the light that they may see and un- 



PREFACE. 9 

derstand, and when the light is taken to them they 
resolutely close their eyes to it and their hearts to 
the truth. But this does not relieve us of the respon- 
sibility of making every effort in our power to send 
out the light of truth. If the minds of our people 
are prepared by a study of the evidences of Chris- 
tianity, and strengthened by a knowledge of the 
truth, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they can 
meet the unbeliever on his own ground and need have 
no fear of the results. Our duty is to place in the 
hands of all a weapon of defense to be wielded against 
unbelief. 

The author is under obligations to writers who 
have preceded him in this line of work. The works 
of Keith, Paley, Pierson, Fisher, Gladstone, Nelson, 
Osborne, Hastings, Dawson and others have been 
consulted and freely used in the preparation of these 
pages. Acknowledgment is made, especially to those 
here named, for helpful suggestions and for facts 
given. 

In the concluding chapters will be found a series 
of illustrations showing the remarkable agreement be- 
tween " the land and the Book." These were for the 
most part written in Palestine and came under the 
author's own observation during his five different vis- 
its to the Holy Land. It was because the conditions 
in the land where the Bible was written agree so 
precisely with the statements made in the Book that 



10 



PREFACE. 



the writer was first led into a consideration of this 
subject. It was the purpose at first to give a num- 
ber of these illustrations in a smaller volume, but 
later it was thought best to enlarge the work and 
present them in connection with some of the evi- 
dences of Christianity. 

This has been done with the ability that God has 
given. If good shall result from this effort, let His 
name be praised. It is the fervent prayer and hope 
of the author that this work of his maturer years may 
be helpful to many in preparing them to meet the 
assaults of infidelity upon the Bible and upon the 
stainless life and perfect character of our Lord Jesus 



Christ. 




Mount Morris, Illinois, 1902. 



Authors Consulted and Used by the Author in the 
Preparation of This Work. 



Keith On the Prophecies. 

Paley's Evidences of Christianity. 

Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge. 

Many Infallible Proofs. Pierson. 

Nelson On Infidelity. 

A Square Talk. Hastings. 

Manual of Christian Evidences. Fisher. 

A Plain Argument for God. Fullerton. 

Is the Bible True? Brookes. 

The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture. Gladstone. 

Witnesses to Christ. Clarke. 

Divine Demonstration. Everest. 

Babylonian Life and History. Budge. 

Fresh Lights from Ancient Monuments. Sayce. 

Voices from Babylon. Seiss. 

Buried Cities and Bible Countries. St. Clair. 

Records of the Past. Sayce. 

Bible Lands. Van Lenner. 

Life of Christ. Geikie. 

Notes L T pon the Bible. Osborne. 

Lange ? s Commentary on Daniel. 

Handbook of Bible Manners and Customs. Freeman. 
The Land and the Book. Thomson. 
Clarke's Commentary on the Book of Daniel. 
International Cyclopaedia. 

Social Life Among the Assyrians and Babylonians. 

Sayce. 
Egypt and Babylon. 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES 



CHAPTER ONE. 



H^TEODTJCTIOU. 



The Holy Scriptures are the Inspired 
Word of God. 

Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for 
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is 
righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, fur- 
nished completely unto every good work. — 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17. 

The Bible contains the inspired Word of God ; it 
is perfect and all-sufficient for the redemption of the 
human race.. " Neither is there salvation in any other : 
for there is none other name under heaven given 
among- men, whereby we must be saved." The Book 
is inspired in the sense that God, by the Holy Spirit, 
moved directly and immediately upon the souls and 
hearts of its write^ and caused them to make a rec- 
ord of the things written in the Book ; and this for 
the very purpose of revealing His will to the chil- 
dren of men. It is all-sufficient because it contains 
the entire will of God concerning us, and is broad 
enough and deep enough to cover every want of 
the human soul. Nothing is wanting in God's perfect 

work, His revelation to the children of men. It con- 

13 



14 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

tains the perfect plan of salvation and, having this, 
nothing more is needed and nothing less will an- 
swer God's purpose. 

The words of the apostle Paul, found at the head of 
this chapter, are inspired : hence it is safe to hold that 
all inspired Scripture is profitable to the man of God. 
Portions of it are doctrinal in their character, and 
these must be believed from the heart; other portions 
are disciplinary, and are profitable for reproof and 
correction, and must be accepted so that growth and 
development may result; while other portions are 
for teaching and instruction. These must 'be studied 
and taken into the heart and lived out in the life, 
so that the " man of God may be complete, furnished 
completely unto every good work." Completeness, 
fullness, perfection, and all-sufficiency are found only 
in the inspired Word of God. 

In accepting the Bible as the only rule of faith 
and practice, proper distinction is to be made be- 
tween what God says to us and what is spoken to 
and by others. Some of the words of the Book are 
addressed to a special class, the Jews, and some of 
the words were not spoken by God. That part of 
the Book which contains the plan of salvation, the 
sayings of Jesus Christ spoken to His disciples and 
the words of His inspired apostles, comes directly to 
us, and is to be accepted as a direct revelation from 
heaven. Here are to be found precept and example. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

and these are to be obeyed and followed. No com- 
mandment, given us in the New Testament Scrip- 
tures, is to be set aside as being nonessential : in 
the atoning blood of Christ and in doing the com- 
mandments is to be found the only ground upon 
which salvation is promised. " Not every one that 
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king- 
dom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of My 
Father which is in heaven. . . . Blessed are they 
that do His commandments, that they may have right 
to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates 
into the city." 

All laws made by ecclesiastical councils are to be 
set aside and God's Word accepted instead. The law 
enacted in the council chamber of heaven and revealed 
to us in the New Testament is to control the church 
of God. Conferences have a place only in devising 
means to carry out the principles embodied in heav- 
en's laws and for the unification of God's people. 
When they go beyond this they usurp authority and 
must not be followed. The Roman Catholic hierarchy 
grounds the authority of the Scriptures on the church. 
This is an error of great magnitude, for the very 
reverse is true ; the church is grounded on the au- 
thority of the Holy Scriptures, and by them only is 
the follower, of Christ to be bound or loosed. Any 
attempt to change or supplement the Scriptures with 
deliverances of church councils is an unwarranted 



l6 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

assumption on the part of imperfect men, and must 
not be submitted to. Christ was dealing with hu- 
man laws, made by the rabbis and the Jewish San- 
hedrin, the great council of the Jews, when He said: 
" In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrine 
the precepts of men." 

From what has preceded we draw this general con- 
clusion : The portion of the Bible directed to us con- 
tains the law of God concerning us. It is the only 
revelation from God to man ; hence the Bible is the 
only authorized rule of faith and practice. It con- 
tains no more, nor less, than is needed for the sal- 
vation of the soul, and was given by God for this 
very purpose ; and the promise of the forgiveness of 
sins and of eternal life rests upon the atoning blood 
of Christ, and obedience from the heart to all the 
commandments in the Bible given us to observe. 

Those who accept the Bible as the Word of God 
may be divided into two classes, and these may be 
determined by the answers to the following ques- 
tions : Why do we believe the Bible to be what we 
claim it to be, the Word of God ? What is the ground 
of our faith? Numbers there are who believe the 
Bible because their pious, believing parents taught 
them from childhood that the Holy Scriptures are 
the Word of God. Thus from infancy they have 
believed the Bible, and have, with unquestioning faith 
and with pure devotion to God, obeyed its teachings. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 7 

Their faith has been strong enough to cause them 
to lead holy and pure lives, and to die the death of 
the righteous in the full hope of eternal life. Who 
will presume to condemn a faith of this kind ? 

Others, and their numbers are not so large as the 
first class, have investigated the ground of their faith ; 
they have carefully examined the evidences of Chris- 
tianity; they have, with great patience, investigated 
the abundant testimony given in favor of the credi- 
bility and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures ; they 
have met and refuted the objections and arguments 
urged against the Christian religion and the Bible 
by unbelievers, and, after going over all the ground 
with the utmost care and painstaking, they are settled 
and fixed in their faith, because the very closest and 
most careful investigation proves, beyond all doubt, 
the truth of the Bible and gives a rock of impreg- 
nable defense against the unbeliever. 

Under two heads may be classed all that has been 
said or written on the evidences of the truth of the 
Bible, — the external, or historical, and the internal ev- 
idences. Under the former head are classed all the 
facts relating to the Bible and its characters, the 
proofs of the fulfillment of prophecy, the miracles 
performed, the spreading of Christianity, the faith 
and devotion of the apostles and disciples of Christ, 
which led them to suffer persecution and martyrdom, 
the benefits growing out of the Christian religion 



iS 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



wherever it has been properly developed and its pre- 
cepts faithfully observed. 

The internal evidences are to be found in the doc- 
trines of the Gospel, their pure and elevated morality, 
their adaptation to the wants of the souls of men, 
their benevolence, uprightness and the holy, elevated 
character of their Founder. 



CHAPTER TWO. 



A Brief Historical Sketch of 
The Old Testament. 

For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. — Psa. 119: 89. 

In the history of the Bible is to be found a strong 
argument in proof of its genuineness and credibility. 
The books of the Bible are genuine if they were writ- 
ten by the authors to whom they have been ascribed. 
But it is well to note that a book may be credible, 
or authentic, even if a mistake has been made as 
to its author. John Marshall is the reputed author 
of a life of George Washington. If it were ascer- 
tained that the book had really been written by some 
other intelligent, truthful friend of the Father of 
his Country, who had known him equally as well as 
did Marshall, the error as to the authorship would 
in no way affect the credibility or authenticity of the 
book. The quality of the truth remains unchanged, 
independent of authorship. 

The Old Testament was originally written in the 
Hebrew, the language of the Jews. It was perpet- 
uated by being copied by the scribes, whose lifework 
was to make copies of the Scriptures. Great care was 
taken in making copies, but occasionally an error 

crept in. This was sometimes occasioned by care- 

19 



20 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



lessness, sometimes by inserting in the text marginal 
notes and sometimes by misunderstanding when the 
writing was done by dictation. Here began the work 
of the Massoretes, the name given to an association of 
learned and devout Hebrews who made the original 
text the great object of their study, and whose sole 
aim was to preserve the Scriptures delivered to them 
by the fathers in as pure a state as possible. In order 
to do this the minutest rules were laid down and 
followed in making copies of the original manuscript. 
The verses, words and letters of the entire Bible were 
counted and numbered. A catalogue of the words 
left out by the scribes was made, and all of those were 
inserted. The letters were also carefully scrutinized 
and all omissions and erroneous insertions corrected. 
When copies were made the words and letters were 
all counted, and if found to agree with the original 
in number, the copy was thus far accepted. Then the 
placing of the letters and the spelling were most care- 
fully examined and studied. Such was the care of 
the Massoretes that their text has stood the test of 
time, and what is known as the Massoretic text of 
the Old Testament is now accepted by all Hebrew 
scholars. It was used in the revision of the Eng- 
lish Bible in 1884. 

Until the time of Joshua the first five books of the 
Bible, known as the Pentateuch, a Greek word mean- 
ing the fivefold book, were all the known written 



HISTORICAL. SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT. 21 



Book of God. It was written on carefully prepared 
skins of animals, known as parchment, and the five 
books of the law composed one continuous roll. The 
writing- was done by the scribes and was begun and 




Roll of the Law, in Possession of the Author. 



completed, probably, in the days of the wandering 
in the wilderness. Other books were written and 
added to the Pentateuch until the list was, with the 
last addition of the prophecy of Malachi, completed 
four hundred and twenty years before the birth of 



22 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



Christ. The length of time which elapsed be- 
tween the writing of the Law and the last book of 
the Old Testament was one thousand and seventy 
years. Thus it took over one thousand years to com- 
plete the first part of the Bible. 

About four hundred and twenty years before Christ, 
and forty years- after the return of the Jews from 
Babylon under Ezra, the books of the Old Testament 
were collected into one book, and a completed list 
was made of the collection. This was done during 
the lives of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Mal- 
achi. After the death of the last-named prophet the 
spirit of prophecy ceased. Josephus, speaking of the 
Old Testament, says that from that time down to his 
own day, A. D. 80, " no one dared to add, take away, 
or alter any thing." During the long period of time 
which elapsed while the books of the Old Testament 
were being written, the Hebrew underwent many 
marked changes. From this fact Dr. Osborne draws 
the following argument as to the genuineness and au- 
thenticity of the Book : Had the Bible been the work 
of an impostor he would have used the Hebrew known 
at the time he lived, his work would have contained 
the style, ideas and meanings of the time he wrote, 
and there would have been traces of the unity of style. 
But instead of this we find changes in style, new ex- 
pressions, characteristic of the time when the par- 
ticular book was written, peculiar additions, and the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT. 23 

use of words and letters, appearance of new idioms 
and grammatical forms from Genesis to the latest 
prophecies. These facts are certain signs of progress- 
ive ages, and are so characteristic of the language of 
the Old Testament that, to the Hebrew scholar of 
the present time, they indicate the age in which the 
book was written, and sometimes suggest the his- 
toric contents of the book composed in that style of 
Hebrew. The Hebrew itself frequently vindicates the 
genuineness and determines the age of the book. Aft- 
er careful examination of this ground, our author 
says : " It is impossible intelligently to believe any 
charges of forgery against the Hebrew originals." 

The Massoretic manuscripts are divided into two 
classes. The first, regarded as holy, are the rolls 
used in the synagogues and are kept in the most holy 
place. As has already been seen, the greatest possi- 
ble care and pains were taken in the transcription of 
these to guard against errors. They contain only the 
Pentateuch, with an occasional addition of the books 
of Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations 
and sections of the books of the prophets. It was 
from one of these holy rolls that our Lord was ac- 
customed to read in the synagogues. 

The second class of manuscripts are known as the 
common or private, and are written on parchment, 
paper, and are also printed and bound in book form. 



24 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

The common manuscripts contain all the books of the 
Old Testament and are known as the greater Massora. 

There are several versions of the Old Testament. 
A version of the Bible is a translation from the original 
into another language. After the dispersion of the 
Jews the Hebrew ceased to be spoken by all of them. 
It then became necessary to translate the Scriptures 
into different languages so that they might be read by 
the Israelites in all parts of the world. Several of 
the different versions are here named. 

The Septuagint. A translation of the Old Testa- 
ment into the Greek about B. C. 280. Josephus as- 
cribes the work to seventy Jewish scholars, hence its 
name. This is, however, regarded as a tradition. It 
was made at Alexandria, Egypt, and was in use many 
years before the birth of Christ. The quotations in 
the New Testament were taken from the Septuagint 
version, showing that it was in general use in the 
time of our Lord 

The Samaritan version is a translation of the Pen- 
tateuch into the Samaritan dialect. It was probably 
made in the second century before Christ. A very 
old copy of this version is to be seen at Xablous, the 
ancient Shechem, in Palestine. It belongs to the Sa- 
maritan community at that place and was recently 
offered for sale at Jerusalem. 

The Syriac version, also called the Peshito, is a 
translation of the Bible into the common language of 



Silver Case for Roll of the Laze. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT. 27 

the people of Palestine. It was made in the second 
century of the Christian era, so that the Christians of 
Syria could have the Scriptures in their own tongue. 

The Vulgate, meaning the common or current text 
of the Scripture, is a translation made by the most 
learned Christian scholar of his time, Jerome, who 
lived A. D. 331-420. Jerome's version of the Bible 
is still used by the Roman Catholic church. 

In addition to the versions already named we have 
the Tar gums, a free rendering of the Old Testa- 
ment into the Chaldaic Hebrew, made for the Baby- 
lonian Jews who by long residence in Babylon had 
partly lost their language. There was also a version 
made for the Armenians, one for the Goths, and still 
another for the church in Africa. 

The Old Testament was the Scripture referred to 
and quoted from by our Savior and his apostles. 
With the exception of Ruth, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehe- 
miah, Songs of Solomon, Lamentations, Obadiah, Na- 
hum and Zephaniah, all the books of the Old are 
quoted from in the New Testament. The Old Tes- 
tament was held by Christ and His followers as the 
inspired Word of God. If we accept the New Tes- 
tament as the inspired Gospel of Jesus Christ, all con- 
troversy as to the Old ceases, because it was accepted 
by Christ. 

Like tracing a mighty river from its mouth to its 
source, so, historically, we trace the Bible from our 



28 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



day back unerringly to the days of the prophets, when 
its books were first brought together and named by 
those men of God. From its source onward, as the 
centuries pass, it becomes a greater volume of truth 
until, rounded out and completed with the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ, it floods the world in these last days 
with divine truth. Prior to the invention of print- 
ing, manuscript copies of the Bible were to be found 
in all the libraries of Europe and in the monasteries 
of the Orient. The revision of the English Bible, 
completed in 1884, involved the examination of as 
many as five thousand manuscripts of the Old and 
New Testaments, some of these dating back to the third 
century of the Christian era. Going still farther up 
the stream, we have the Targums and the various ver- 
sions already referred to, taking us back to two hun- 
dred and eighty years before the birth of Christ, when 
the Septuagint was completed. . And this points with 
absolute and unerring certainty to an earlier copy in 
the Hebrew from which the translation was made. 
It is fair to assume that this was the copy of the 
Sacred Scriptures of Ezra who lived in the fifth cen- 
tury before Christ. Thus, with unerring certainty 
and without a single break in the stream, we trace 
the Old Testament of our times back to the holy 
prophets of God who wrote and spoke " as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost." 



CHAPTER THREE. 



Historical Sketch of the New Testament. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was God. — John i: I. 

As we trace the Old Testament from the present 
day to the days of the prophets, so also the New Testa- 
ment is traced to the days of the apostles with the same 
unerring certainty and without a missing link in the 
chain of testimony. Historically considered, the Book 
covers a period of about one hundred years ; that is, 
from the birth of Christ to the close of the book of 
Revelation. Twenty-seven books, written by eight 
different authors between A. D. 40 and A. D. 96, make 
up the volume of the New Testament ; its writings 
thus cover, in point of time, fifty-six years. The Gos- 
pel by Matthew, Eusebius says, was written about A. 
D. 40. Mark and Luke wrote A. D. 58-68, and John 
between A. D. 80 and 96. The epistles were written 
at various times from A. D. 60 to A. D. 96. 

The external history of the New Testament, before 
the discovery of the art of printing, can be traced a 
thousand years by the manuscript copies. The manu- 
scripts were originally written in Greek. The first, or 
autograph, copies of the different books very early 
disappeared. They were written on papyrus, 1 and, 

1 2 John, verse 12. 

29 



30 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

owing to the perishable nature of the material, were 
easily broken and destroyed. Fragments of New 
Testament papyri have recently been discovered, and 
these reveal the fate of many ancient copies, which, 
if they had been preserved, would be of incalculable 
value. Those that have been discovered had been 
used but little ; indeed most of them were found in 
ancient tombs and had probably not been used at all. 
Recently a very important find of New Testament pa- 
pyri was made at Oxyrynchus, Egypt. The photo- 
gravure on next page was taken from one of these pa- 
pyri known as the " Sayings of Jesus." At the same 
place was discovered another fragment containing a 
large part of the first chapter of Matthew. These 
words appear, " Joseph, thou son of David, fear not 
to take unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is con- 
ceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." The date of these 
most important documents is given by experts as A. D. 
150-200, and they carry the record of the written Gos- 
pel back to the time of Polycarp who sat at the feet of 
John the beloved disciple. Prior to these ancient pa- 
pyri there must have been older copies of the Gospels 
from which these were made. 

The use of parchment prevailed from the fourth to 
the eleventh century, when it was superseded by paper 
made first of cotton and later of linen. Owing to the 
great scarcity of writing material, often the old skins 
were re-used by washing off or erasing the original 



"Sayings of Jesus." 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEW TESTAMENT. 33 

writing, and most unfortunately it often happened that 
it was a biblical manuscript that was used in this way. 
Thus many priceless manuscript copies of the New 
Testament were* lost. By the use of chemicals, how- 
ever, in some, cases the original writings have been re- 
covered in modern times. Such manuscripts are 
known as palimpsests. Of these the most famous is 
the Codex Ephraemi, written in the fifth, and erased 
and rewritten in the twelfth century (the word codex 
means manuscript) by a scribe named Ephraem. He 
used a biblical manuscript upon which to write a trea- 
tise of his own. The original writing was restored by 

nre t< m <jd ™ C ovrre r muro y k* 

SH NeXKgOMeNiTTOTOyTTj'C 

Greek Uncial (Cod. Alex. ), 5th century. 

(tckvcov crov irepiiraTOvv 

tas aArjBeta nadus euro 

h-qv (\a(3ofAev airo rov 7r[ar]p[o]s. — 2 John 4.) 

Tischendorf. There are about one thousand known 
manuscripts of the New Testament. About thirty of 
these contain all the books of the New Testament, the 
rest being more or less fragmentary in their character. 
They are divided, according to the style in which they 
are written, into two classes : uncial and cursive. 

The Uncial Manuscripts. These are written in 
capitals, without any division into words or sentences 



34 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

and with but few punctuation marks. The translators 
had a very difficult task before them in reading and 
translating the uncial writings. The engraving of the 
uncial writing taken from the Codex Alexandrinus will 
make the difficulties apparent to the reader. 

The oldest and most valuable of the New Testament 
manuscripts of this character, now known to exist, is 
called the Codex Sinaiticus. It was discovered by 
Tischendorf in 1859 in the convent of St. Catharine at 
Mount Sinai. 

A brief account of this most valuable discovery will 
be read with interest and profit. May 12, 1844, Ti- 
schendorf left Cairo, Egypt, for Mount Sinai. Cross- 
ing the desert he reached the sacred mountain the 
twenty-fourth of the same month, and was received 
and entertained by the monks of the convent. While 
searching the library, he discovered in the corner of 
the room a box used for rubbish, in which he noticed 
some leaves of parchment. These proved to be a part 
of the now famous copy of the Scriptures, but he was 
able to find at that time only a few leaves. In 1854 
he made another trip to Sinai, but failed to discover 
the coveted treasure. Finally, in 1859, fifteen years 
after he made his first trip, Tischendorf gained from 
the Russian government financial aid and moral 
support, which enabled him to visit Sinai again. He 
reached the convent Jan. 31, 1859, and began his 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEW TESTAMENT. 35 

search for the missing leaves; but he searched in 
vain, until the afternoon of Feb. 4, when the steward 
of the monastery called his attention to a manuscript 
which he had laid away. To the great joy of the 
German scholar it proved to be the missing manu- 
script, — an entire copy of the New Testament and 
a part of the Old. His long search was rewarded. 
After many perplexities and great difficulties he was 
enabled to make a copy of the manuscript, and finally 
succeeded in placing the original in the library at 
St. Petersburg, Russia, where it still remains. We 
now have a number of photographic copies of the 
original. 

The Codex Sinaiticus contains twenty-six books of 
the Old Testament, all of the New, and the epistles 
of Barnabas, with a part of the epistle of Hermas. 
It is justly regarded by scholars as the most impor- 
tant manuscript copy of the New Testament now 
known to exist. Tischendorf rendered valuable serv- 
ice to Christianity by his discovery, and by his per- 
sistent efforts to secure this copy of the Scriptures. 
His name will be associated with the New Testa- 
ment until the end shall come. 

The Vatican Codex in the Vatican library at Rome 
and the Codex Alexandrinus in the British Museum, 
London, stand next to the Sinai manuscript in impor- 
tance. The Alexandrian copy is written on fine vel- 
lum in uncial letters, and is without accents, or marks 



36 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

of aspiration or marks between the words. It be- 
longed as early as 1098 to the library in Constanti- 
nople. In 1628 it was presented to Charles the First, 
King of England, by Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch of 
Constantinople, who declared that he had received 
it from Egypt where, in all probability, it was writ- 
ten. The Vatican manuscript is also of great value. 
It was written on fine, thin vellum in beautifully 
formed letters and contains the New Testament to 
Hebrews 9:14. It has been in the Vatican library 
for about three hundred years. 

The Cursive Manuscripts, so called because they 
are written in a running hand, are quite numerous 
and some of them are of great value. The running hand 
in writing appears to have come into use in the tenth 
century. The words are run together as in the case 
of the uncials. By a careful examination of the ma- 
terial upon which it is written, the character of 
the writing, and the punctuation, it is possible to tell 
with considerable accuracy the time to which any 
manuscript belongs. 

In the most ancient manuscripts the order of the 
books of the New Testament is as follows : the four 
Gospels, the Pauline epistles, the book of Acts, the 
general epistles and Revelation. From this order 
there is some variation as to the epistles. 

Eusebius, the father of church history and Bishop 
of Caesarea, prepared by order of the Roman Em- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEW TESTAMENT. 39 

peror, Constantine the Great, fifty copies of the Sacred 
Scriptures about A. D. 330. The historian was a 
warm personal friend of the Emperor and was held 
in high esteem by him. The Bishop says : " Ever 
careful for the welfare of the churches of God, the 
Emperor addressed me personally in a letter on the 
means of providing copies of the Inspired Oracles. 
His letter, which related to the providing of copies 
of the Scriptures for reading in the churches, was 
to the following purport : 

" ' Victor Constantine, Maximus Augustus, to Eu- 
sebius : 

" ' It happens, through the favoring of God our 
Savior, that great numbers have united themselves 
to the most Holy Church in the City that is called 
by my name. It seems, therefore, highly requisite, 
since that city is rapidly advancing in prosperity in 
all other respects, that the number of churches should 
also be increased. Do you therefore receive with all 
readiness my determination on this behalf. I have 
thought it expedient to instruct your prudence to 
order fifty copies of the Sacred Scriptures, the provi- 
sion and use of which you know to be most needful 
for the instruction of the church, to be written on 
prepared parchment, in a legible manner, and in a 
commodious and portable form, by transcribers thor- 
oughly practiced in their art. The procurator of the 



40 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

diocese has also received instruction by letter from 
our clemency to be careful to furnish all things nec- 
essary for the preparation of such copies ; and it 
will be for you to take special care that they be com- 
pleted with as little delay as possible. You have 
authority also, in virtue of this letter, to use two 
of the public carriages for their conveyance, by which 
arrangement the copies, when fairly written, will most 
easily be forwarded for my personal inspection ; and 
one of the deacons of your church may be intrusted 
with this service, who, on his arrival here, shall ex- 
perience my liberality. God preserve you, my beloved 
brother.' " 

Upon receiving the Emperor's commands the Bish- 
op at once set about having them carried into effect. 
In due course of time there were sent him fifty copies 
of the Scriptures in magnificent and elaborate volumes 
of a threefold and fourfold form. This fact is at- 
tested by a letter sent to Eusebius by the Emperor 
acknowledging the receipt of the books. 

Here we have an account of the preparation of fifty 
copies of the Scriptures, three hundred years after 
they were written. This shows that as early as A. 
D. 306 the Scriptures existed in manuscript form, and 
that no doubt was entertained by Constantine as to 
their genuineness and authenticity. Tischendorf was 
of the opinion that the valuable copy discovered by 
him at Mount Sinai was one of the copies ordered 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEW TESTAMENT. 41 

by the Roman Emperor, and that it was presented 
to the monastery by its founder, Justinian. 

In addition to the manuscript copies of the New 
Testament written on parchment and papyrus dating 
back, probably, to A. D. 150, we have various versions 
of the Book as early in date as the manuscript copies. > 
A version differs from a manuscript in this, that the 
latter always means a copy in the original language, 
while the former is a translation from the original 
into some other tongue. A version is proof positive 
that the original was not only in existence when the 
translation was made, but that it had assumed suf- 
ficient importance to justify the great labor necessary 
to turn it into other languages. - Such was the case 
with our New Testament. In the early centuries ver- 
sions appeared in the Syriac, the Latin, the Egyptian 
or Coptic, the Arabic and other tongues. The Syriac 
was in common use among the Eastern churches, 
while the Latin became the Bible language of the 
Western churches. As already indicated, there is 
strong evidence in favor of dating the last two ver- 
sions as early as A. D. 150, or fifty years after the 
death of John whom Jesus loved. 

Thus from our own time, link by link, we trace the 
Gospel of Jesus back to the days of the apostles. 
Indeed we may say that a chain of two- links binds 
the first and the twentieth centuries together. The 
printed Bible takes us back to the fifteenth, and the 



42 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



manuscripts back to the middle of the second cen- 
tury. The quotations from the Gospels made by the 
church fathers, which will be considered in another 
chapter, and the early versions are side testimonies 
adding strength to the two-linked chain of evidences. 
We may thank God that He has not left us without 
witnesses to verify the genuineness and the credibility 
of His Holy Book, that amid the turmoil, the strife 
and the wasting wars of the centuries the Gospel comes 
down to us as it was delivered unto the apostles by 
Him who spake as never man spake. 



CHAPTER FOUR. 



The English Bible. 

Ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among 
us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the 
Gospel, and believe. — Acts 15: 7. 

Because of its general interest to the Bible stu- 
dent, a brief sketch is given of our English Bible, 
the beginnings of which are found in the earliest at- 
tempts to translate it into the Anglo-Saxon. The first 
effort in this direction was made by Csedmon, a monk 
of Whitby. He did not attempt a translation, but 
composed a poetical treatise on some portions of the 
Bible. He died A. D. 680, and was followed by Ad- 
helm, the first bishop of Sherbourne, who translated 
the Psalms. Egbert gave to the Anglo-Saxon world 
portions of the four Gospels, and then came Bede, the 
greatest scholar of his age. He died A. D. 735 while 
engaged in the translation of the Gospel by St. John. 
He had completed five chapters and was engaged on 
the sixth when death suddenly closed his labors in 
this world. Both Alfred the Great and ^Elfric trans- 
lated portions of the Bible in the tenth century. King 
Alfred's object was to make the laws of Moses the 
basis of the judicial system of his kingdom. 

But it is to John Wycliffe, " the morning star of 

the reformation," that we are indebted for the first 

43 



44 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



English translation of the Bible. This great work was 
completed about A. D. 1380 and marks an epoch in 
the history of the Bible. The translation was made 
from the Vulgate, and but few copies in manuscript 
were issued. But the work was started, and such 
has been the demand for the English Bible that not 
less than two hundred million copies were printed in 
English during the nineteenth century. 

The discovery of printing by Gutenberg, 1450-55, 
was of the greatest advantage to the Scriptures. The 
first book issued from the press was a Latin Bible. 
Thus the press, which has become one of the great 
world powers, was at first dedicated to the printing 
of God's Holy Book. 

Wycliffe's version was soon followed by other trans- 
lations of the Bible. To William Tyndale is due 
the credit of having been the first to give to the world 
a printed translation of the entire Scriptures. Soon 
after completing this great and important task his 
body was burned at the stake in a religious perse- 
cution, October 6, 1536. 

Coverdale and Rogers, both personal friends of the 
martyred Tyndale, made translations and compilations 
of the Bible based on the work of their friend. Later 
appeared the Geneva, the Bishop's, and the Douay Bi- 
bles, the latter the Roman Catholic Bible, these be- 
ing the most noted translations prior to the appear- 
ance of the Authorized Version, also called the King 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 45 

James Version, although he had nothing to do with 
it except to appoint the fifty-foiir eminent scholars 
who did the work and published the results of their 
labors in 1611. The Authorized Version has since 
then been accepted and used by all English-speaking 
Protestants in the world. 

The Revised Version, published in 1881-85, is the 
result of the labors of a commission of English and 
American scholars, forty-one in number, represent- 
ing the best scholarship of the time. The work is 
highly prized by all Bible students, but has not yet 
come into popular use. 

Punctuation marks, and the division of the Scrip- 
tures into chapters and verses, were first introduced 
to aid in the study of the Word. The Gospels were 
divided into chapters, first by Ammonius of Alex- 
andria A. D. 22c), then came a similar division of 
all the books of the New Testament ; but the work 
was not fully completed until about A. D. 500. The 
division of the entire book into chapters was not 
made until the thirteenth century, the work having 
been accomplished by Cardinal Hugo de St. Caro, who 
died A. D. 1263. The division of the New Testa- 
ment into verses was introduced by Robert Stevens 
in his Greek Testament in A. D. 1551. Four years 
later he issued the entire Bible divided into verses. 
The faulty character of his work has been clearly 
shown by the Revised Scriptures, but it has been 



46 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

a great help to the study of the Bible. It was doubt- 
less due to the omission of this verse division of the 
Scriptures that the Revised Version did not meet 
with a more ready acceptance when it was published 
in 1884. 



CHAPTER FIVE. 



The Antiquity and Genuineness of the Bible. 

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. — John 
17: 17. 

As has been set forth in preceding chapters, the 
Bible is not a book of recent date or modem origin, 
neither is it an idle tale of modern times told for 
the diversion of its readers. Its antiquity is based 
on indisputable evidence, and only the densely ig- 
norant doubt its great age. Those who have exam- 
ined the history of the Bible, and have weighed the 
great mass of evidence offered in proof of its claim 
to antiquity, have not the least doubt of its great 
age. Even scoffing unbelievers, who are at all in- 
formed on the subject, admit that the Bible is an 
ancient book, lngersoll, who wrote about the sup- 
posed mistakes of Moses, believed that the great Jew- 
ish lawgiver lived and wrote and labored more than 
three thousand years ago. 

All through the ages of its existence the' Bible 
has had its witnesses and guardians, though some of 
them have been the greatest perverters of Christian 
doctrine and the bitterest enemies of the Christian 
faith. The Old Testament, containing the most of 
the prophecies, as has already been noted, was pre- 
served with the most religious care by the Jews. 

47 



48 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

To them it was a Sacred Holy Book. It contained 
their code of laws given amid the thunders of Si- 
nai, their history from the call of Abraham to the 
close of the prophetical age, their psalms and hymns 
and songs of praise, the record of the lives of their 
great men and women, the sayings and exhortations 
to godliness of their wise and holy men and the proph- 
ecies which unveiled to them, in a measure, the un- 
known future. Add to these weighty reasons for 
preserving the Book intact the fact that they be- 
lieved that the Old Testament contained the inspired 
Word of God concerning them, and we have the 
strongest possible motive on their part for handing 
down the Holy Scriptures in unchanged form from 
generation to generation. And while the Jews were 
responsible for the crucifixion of Christ and made 
the most determined efforts, in vain however, to stamp 
out Christianity in its infancy, and were its most 
bitter enemies and persecutors for many years, yet 
they preserved with the utmost care the Old Tes- 
tament Scriptures, which testify of Christ, as they 
were delivered to them. They were read on the Sab- 
bath day in all their synagogues, beginning long be- 
fore the birth of Christ and continuing down to the 
present time. Multiplied copies of the law and the 
prophets, and of the New Testament were transcribed 
with the utmost care and in the most painstaking 
manner by men set apart for the work because of 



ANTIQUITY AND GENUINENESS OF BIELE. 49 

their great skill as scribes, and such was the care 
to have the copy exactly like the original that a single 
error was sufficient to condemn the writing and a 
new copy had to be made. And now in these later 
days millions and tens of millions of copies of the 
Bible are printed in all the known languages of the 
world. 

As already observed, we are able to trace the New 
Testament, through printed and manuscript copies, 
back to the middle of the second century, and thence 
to the days of the apostles by the very strongest pre- 
sumptive testimony. Such is the character of the ev- 
idence that it removes all doubt of the genuineness 
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Briefly we look at the evidence of the genuineness 
of the Gospel, and it will be found that it is of the 
same character as that which satisfies us of the gen- 
uineness of the writings of Josephus, the orations 
of Cicero, the commentaries of Caesar, the "Biblical 
Antiquities " of Bingham, and of other writings both 
ancient and modern. When a book is accepted and 
quoted from as genuine by those who lived at, or 
near about, the time of its publication, all doubt is 
removed as to its genuineness in the minds of those 
who accepted and quoted from it. If the book were 
believed to be spurious when published, the fact could 
not be concealed, and no one would accept and quote 
from it if such were the case. 



50 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

In a succeeding chapter of this book quotations 
are made from Keith on the prophecies. He wrote 
more than haif a century ago. The writer never saw 
him and but few who read these pages ever met 
the distinguished author, and yet no one doubts the 
genuineness of Keith's writings. The fact that they 
are quoted from now is an evidence that they are gen- 
uine. 

All Bible students are acquainted with Dr. Thom- 
son's " Land and Book." In it is % found a quotation 
from the writings of Seawulf, a traveler of ancient 
times. The quotation proves, beyond all doubt, that 
the book from which it was made was in existence 
when it was quoted from. But suppose the first edi- 
tion of Seawulf's writings had been destroyed, would 
not the quotations prove that the book, as known in 
later editions, existed in the earlier one? Surely this 
would be proof of the most positive kind. 

The writings of Celsus, the bitter opponent of 
Christianity who wrote in the second century, are 
known only to us by quotations made from them by 
Origen in his noted reply in refutation of this attack 
on the Christian religion. But no one doubts that 
Celsus lived and wrote the book from which the ante- 
nicene fathers quoted. Keim, a German author, made 
an effort to reconstruct the writings of Celsus from 
quotations made by Origen. So with the New Testa- 
ment. Quotations were made from its various books 



THE NEW TESTAMENT QUOTED FROM. 5 1 

soon after it was published, and the writings of the 
authors who quoted from the copies of the Scriptures 
have come down to us and the quotations agree with 
the New Testament as we now have it. The conclu- 
sion is placed beyond all doubt. The books of the 
New Testament quoted from were in existence, and ac- 
cepted as genuine and authentic when the quotations 
were made. 

Taking our stand at the close of the "first and in 
the early part of the second centuries of our era, 
we examine the quotations made from the Gospels. 
The epistle of Barnabas, so-called (there is some 
doubt as to the authorship), was written not later 
than A. D. 120. It is quoted from by Clement of 
Alexandria, A. D. 194, by Origen thirty-six years 
later, and is referred to by both Eusebius and Je- 
rome in the fourth century as an ancient work. In 
it appear these words : " Let us therefore beware lest 
it come upon us as it is written, ' There are many 
called, few chosen.' " From this quotation we draw 
the safe conclusion that in the year A. D. 120, when 
this epistle was written, there was a book extant, 
well known to Christians and accepted by them as 
genuine and authentic, and of great authority among 
them containing these words : 

" Many are called, few chosen." 

Such a book is our present Gospel by Matthew, in 



52 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

which the text is twice 1 found. And these words 
are found in no other book prior to the time when 
the quotation was made. It is worthy of note that 
the author uses the words, " It is written," the very 
phrase invariably used by the Jews when referring to 
the Scriptures. Christ uses the same words in His 
temptation, " It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord thy God." In this same epistle of Barnabas 
many passages are quoted from Matthew. Among 
others, " Give to every one that asketh," " He came 
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 2 
The author of the epistle under consideration quoted 
from the Gospel of Matthew just as surely as Origen 
quoted from Celsus, Dr. Thomson from Seawulf and 
the writer from Keith. 

We are in possession of an epistle attributed to 
Clement, bishop of Rome, written in the beginning 
of the second century, who, some ancient writers as- 
sert, was the Clement to whom Paul refers in Philpp. 
4: 3. This epistle is frequently spoken of by the 
apostolic fathers and acknowledged as authority by 
all. Irenaeus says : " It was written by Clement, who 
had seen the blessed apostles and conversed with 
them ; who had the preaching of the apostles still 
sounding in his ears and their traditions before his 
eyes." The epistle is addressed to the church at 
Corinth, and Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, was wit- 



1 Matt. 20: 16; 22: 14. 



2 Matt. 5 : 42; 9: 13. 



CLEMENT QUOTES FROM MATTHEW AND LUKE. 53 

ness, A. D. 170, that the epistle of Clement had been 
wont to be read in all the churches from ancient times. 
Clement, in this epistle, about the close of the first 
century, quotes largely from the Gospels. Among 
others, the epistle contains the following valuable pas- 
sages : " Especially remembering the words of the 
Lord Jesus which He spoke, teaching gentleness and 
long-suffering, for thus He spake : ' Be ye merciful 
that ye may obtain mercy; forgive that it may be 
forgiven you; as ye judge, so shall ye be judged; 
as ye are kind, so shall kindness be shown unto 
you; with what measure ye mete, with the same it 
shall be measured unto you.' " Again, " Remember 
the words of the Lord Jesus, for He said : ' Woe to 
that man by whom offenses come ; it were better for 
him that he had not been born, than that he should 
offend one of my elect ; it were better for him that 
a millstone should be tied about his neck, and that 
he should be drowned in the sea, than that he should 
offend one of my little ones ! ' " 1 Here are quota- 
tions taken from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke 
by an author who lived among the apostles and knew 
them personally. In quoting from the Gospel, he 
gives it as a matter about which there was no doubt 
or controversy. Again the only conclusion is that 
when Clement wrote, A. D. 98, he quoted from a 

1 Apostolic Fathers, Edinburgh Edition, chap. 13, page 16; compare 
also Matt. 6: 12-15; 7- 2 and Luke 6: 36-38. 



54 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

copy of the Gospels by Matthew and Luke, and that 
such a book was in existence at that time. 

Following Clement, we have Hermas named by 
Paul ; Ignatius, bishop of the church of Antioch, thir- 
ty-seven years after Christ's ascension ; Polycarp, bish- 
op of the church at Smyrna, who sat at the feet of 
John the apostle and was burned at the stake A. D. 
155; then, twenty years later, Justin Martyr, one 
of the most able defenders of the Christian faith 
in the early days of the primitive church. He was 
born about the close of the first century at Shechem, 
in Palestine. He was a follower of Plato and his 
school of Greek philosophy, but an aged Christian 
pointed out to him the way of salvation. He ac- 
cepted Christ and became an able defender of the 
truth. He suffered martyrdom A. D, 166 in the 
reign of Marcus Aurelius. He wrote a strong de- 
fense of Christianity A. D. 148. He refers to the 
Gospels as the " Memoirs of the Apostles " and draws 
from them his account of the life and teachings of 
Jesus. He also calls them the Gospels and quotes 
from them saying that they were read in the reli- 
gious services of the Christians both in the city and 
in the country. That Justin Martyr accepted the Gos- 
pels is proven by the fact that his pupil, Tatian, 
combined these four in a simple narrative and called 
it the Diatessaron, or Gospel of the Four. 

Irenseus was one among the great leaders and writ- 



TESTIMONY OF IREN^US. 55 

ers of the primitive church during the last half of 
the second century. He was born in Asia Minor 
about A. D. 115 and became bishop of Lyons A. D. 
177, succeeding Pothonius who attained to the great 
age of ninety years. Irenaeus spent the early years 
of his life in Asia Minor and well remembered the 
martyred Polycarp., He says of him : " Whom we 
also saw in our early years, for he remained a very 
long time, and at a great age was put to death tes- 
tifying gloriously." Besides his acquaintance with 
Polycarp, Irenaeus knew many of the elders who had 
been learners and ministers under those who had 
been taught by the apostles, and many of them had 
seen the apostles themselves, and thus had oppor- 
tunity of knowing those things commonly believed 
and accepted by the apostolic church. He wrote ex- 
tensively in the Greek, directing his works against 
the prevalent heresies of the time. 

In his writings Irenaeus speaks of the four Gos- 
pels as received by all the churches and received ex- 
clusively by them. His writings give the most pos- 
itive evidence that in his time, and in the time of 
those he knew, there was no doubt as to the gen- 
uineness of the Gospels, and his testimony would 
take us back through his contemporaries to the days 
of the apostles. Pie says : " We have not received 
the knowledge of the way of our salvation by any 
other than those by whom the Gospel was brought 



56 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

to us, which Gospel they first preached and after- 
wards by the will of God committed ' to writing 
that it might be for time to come the foundation and 
pillar of our faith. For after that our Lord rose 
from the dead, and they, the apostles, were endowed 
from above with the power of the Holy Ghost com- 
ing down upon them, they received a perfect knowl- 
edge of all things ; Matthew, then among the Jews, 
wrote a Gospel in their own language, while Peter and 
Paul were preaching the Gospel at Rome and found- 
ing a church there ; and after their exit, Mark, also 
the disciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to 
us in writings the things that had been preached by 
Peter; and Luke, the companion of Paul, put down 
in a book the Gospel preached by Paul. After- 
ward John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned 
upon his breast, likewise published a Gospel while 
he dwelt at Ephesus." Irenseus also gives us the in- 
formation that John reached an advanced age, and 
that he did not die until after Trajan became em- 
peror of Rome, A. D. 98. 

Other testimony as to the exclusive use of the four 
Gospels among the primitive churches as the only 
authority and as the accepted teaching of Jesus is 
given by many other distinguished teachers and elders. 
Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian both wrote in 
the third century. The former refers to the " four 
Gospels," and the latter asserts that the four Gos- 



TESTIMONY FROM UNBELIEVERS. 57 

pels have existed from the very beginning of the 
churches and are coeval with them. 

Thus we trace the Gospels from the apostolic days 
to the third century, when even unbelievers admit 
that they existed as they have come down to us. 
And here we might rest the case, but we give some 
testimony from unbelievers. 

Celsus, a most bitter opponent of the Christian 
religion, to whom reference has already been made, 1 
makes more than eighty quotations from the New 
Testament. His whole argument proceeds upon the 
concession that the book he quoted from was in ex- 
istence, that it was accepted as genuine and. was held 
as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Had it been other- 
wise, how quickly and how gladly would this bit- 
ter opponent of Christianity have attacked the au- 
thenticity of the New Testament Scriptures. The ev- 
idence of this Grecian philosopher and worshiper of 
the false gods of the Greeks is of the utmost impor- 
tance. Seventy-eight years after the death of the 
beloved apostle John, he wrote and quoted from the 
New Testament as an authentic book. 

Porphyry wrote A. D. 271 and was the most bit- 
ter and formidable foe and opponent of Christianity 
in his time In his writings he refers to Matthew, 
John, Acts and Galatians, and there is no trace of 
suspicion in his writings that the books were spu- 

1 See page 50. 



58 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

rious. He held them to be what they purported to 
be, — the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Had there been 
the least shadow of a doubt as to this, he would 
at once have attacked them at that point, for he 
did attack the book of Daniel concerning the proph- 
ecy of the coming of Christ. 

Hierocles wrote A. D. 303. He was president of 
Bithynia and a cruel persecutor of the Christians. 
His writings are full of sarcasm, but he concedes 
the genuineness of the Gospels and seeks for con- 
tradictions, by which he aims to show that they are 
not inspired. He refers to six of the eight authors 
of the New Testament. 

The facts here given are so conclusive of the gen- 
uineness and authenticity of the New Testament that 
no one who examines them carefully can doubt. 
The quotations made by writers in the first and sec- 
ond centuries show conclusively that the Gospel was 
then written and existed in the form of a book, that 
it was held in high authority by all believers, and 
was quoted from as an end to all controversy, and 
that the later copies, dating from A. D. 325, to which 
we now have access, are exact reproductions of the 
original. The invaluable testimony of pagan writers, 
who bitterly opposed the introduction of Christian- 
ity, also shows that when they wrote the Sacred 
Book was in existence, and that it was held to be 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The entire line of ev- 



GENUINENESS OF JOHN'S GOSPEL. 59 

idence here given traces the New Testament, with 
unerring certainty, back to the days of the apostles 
when the Book was written. 

In closing this chapter reference is made to the 
attack on the genuineness of the Gospel according 
to John. The beloved apostle lays peculiar empha- 
sis upon the divinity of Christ, the union in His per- 
son of the divine and human natures, the office of 
the Holy Ghost and the love of God. Doubtless for 
these reasons the destructive critics have so persist- 
ently and furiously attacked the genuineness of John's 
Gospel. They have attributed it to some of the eld- 
ers of the second century, and in every possible 
way have tried to show that it was not written by 
John. But, as Farrar truthfully says, the objections 
have been met, point by point, and nothing can in- 
validate the mass of external and internal evidence 
in its favor. 

Recently there has been discovered the most inter- 
esting and conclusive evidence of the genuineness of 
John's Gospel in Tatian's Diatessaron. The docu- 
ment is a harmony of the four Gospels, written about 
the year A. D. 150 by a scholar named Tatian. It 
gives the most conclusive evidence that John's Gos- 
pel was well known before Tatian wrote and that 
when he wrote his harmony there was not the slight- 
est doubt as to its genuineness. If there had been 



6o 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



he would not have included it in his harmony, where 
it stands with the same authority as the Gospels writ- 
ten by Matthew, Mark and Luke. The early writers 
among the church fathers frequently refer to the 
Diatessaron, but until the last score of years no cop- 
ies of it were known to exist, and the critics were 
not slow to< say that Tatian and his writings were 
apocryphal. 

In the Vatican library at Rome an old manuscript 
was discovered to be palimpsest, that is, as already 
explained, one text written over another, and the 
earlier writing was found to be a copy of the Dia- 
tessaron written in the Arabic. Another copy was also 
discovered in Egypt, so that now we have two cop- 
ies of Tatian's work. While it is not regarded as 
having great value as a harmony of the Gospels, yet 
it does settle most conclusively the genuineness of the 
Gospel according to St. John, and completely demol- 
ishes the contention of the critics. Thus the God 
of all truth, in His own time and way, preserves and 
gives us evidences of the truth of His Word. 

As Dr. Storrs says, " Whatever particular criti- 
cism may be made concerning writings or portions 
of writings in th^ Scriptures, as to their authority, 
as to their proper place in the sacred canon, as to 
the authorship of them, as to the time at which they 
were written, these criticisms or critical inquiries no 



THE SCRIPTURES AUTHENTIC. 6l 

more touch the substance of the Scripture than a 
minute botanical analysis touches the splendor of gar- 
dens or the grandeur of forests, or than the deep- 
sea soundings efface the blue from the surface of 
the ocean, or stay the swing of its tremendous tides." 



CHAPTER SIX. 



The Word of Prophecy. 

Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. — 
2 Peter i: 21. 

The truths of the Book of God rest for confirmation, 
not alone on the evidences of its genuineness and credi- 
bility, for God has not left his people without many 
witnesses of the inspiration of the Bible, and we are 
glad to know that the evidences here are just as strong 
and convincing as those already given in these pages. 
Upon fulfilled prophecy we may base our claims that 
the Book is of divine origin, and that its precepts and 
commands are of supreme obligation to us. Fulfilled 
prophecy is a miracle in itself. It is the seal of in- 
spiration on God's Book, for only the divine and om- 
niscient Creator of all things can put aside the veil of 
the future and foretell events that are surely to come to 
pass. Prophecy surely and unmistakably points out 
the hand of God in history. What seems to us a con- 
flict, full of apparent discord and disorder, is seen, in 
the light of fulfilled prophecy and history, to be, as 
a whole, a grand and harmonious plan, in which the 
hand of the Almighty Controller of events is con- 
stantly visible, and from which is entirely eliminated 
every element of disorder. 

62 



WHAT PROPHECY IS NOT. 63 

What is prophecy? Let us seek a definition that 
will make the meaning of the word plain. That 
prophecy came not by the will of man is a statement 
readily admitted by all, and it is equally true that it 
does come from God. No man, unaided by divine 
power, can look into the future and foretell what is 
to come to pass. Nothing is more surely settled than 
that what the future has in store for us is closed to 
human knowledge. It is the sealed book that the hu- 
man mind cannot open. Some things about the fu- 
ture we may and do know. God's laws bring about 
certain results, and these, by our own experience and 
that of others, we may learn to know. But this is not 
prophecy. Guesses we may make, and, by discerning 
the face of the sky and studying the laws governing 
the changes of weather, we may predict with some de- 
gree of certainty what the morrow shall bring to us 
in rain, sunshine, or storms ; but this is not prophecy. 
The modern fortune tellers, — to be found in our towns 
and cities and among the wandering gypsies in the 
country, — with some knowledge of human nature, 
make shrewd guesses and extract the silver coins from 
their dupes ; but they know nothing of the future. 
They can guess, and so can any of us ; but guessing, 
even if it should hit, is as far removed from prophecy 
as the east is from the west. We may, to some ex- 
tent, judge the future by the past, and with an accu- 
rate knowledge of human affairs, we may, with some 



64 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

degree of certainty, arrive at conclusions as to what 
the future will bring forth. 

History repeats itself and like causes produce like 
results. If we see certain forces at work, we can say 
what the result will be. If we see a wooden building 
on fire we know that unless the fire is extinguished 
the structure will be consumed. We may say, with a 
considerable degree of certainty, that in the northern 
part of the United States we shall have snow and cold 
and freezing weather the coming winter and that we 
shall have warm weather during the summer months. 
But this is only judging the future by the past, and 
does not have in it a single element of prophecy. The 
disclosing of future events, — prophecy, in its true 
meaning, — belongs alone to God, and the words of 
inspiration state a fact in the language quoted, 
" Prophecy comes not by the will of man." 

But what is prophecy ? The apostle says : " Holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost." Prophecy is God's omniscience, given to us 
through the instrumentality of holy men. A prophet 
must be a holy man of God, and his words must be 
dictated by the Holy Spirit. He must speak not for 
himself, but for God. He becomes, under the inspira- 
tion of the Holy Ghost, the mouthpiece of God, and 
speaks with the authority of heaven. God alone is 
omniscient, and He alone knows what the centuries 
to come will bring forth. He alone can unveil 



WHAT PROPHECY IS. 65 

futurity and show His servants the things that are 
to be and that must come to pass. Prophecy, then, 
comes from God to holy men moved upon by the Di- 
vine Spirit. 

In more fully answering the question, What is 
prophecy? Dr. Pierson's definition is given. First, 
it must be such an unveiling of the future that no hu- 
man foresight, wisdom, or sagacity, could have guessed 
it. Human beings sometimes exhibit remarkable fore- 
sight and forecast, when no supernatural element ex- 
ists. A statesman may discover elements of corruption 
which may lead him to predict the overthrow of a na- 
tion within a given time. Comparison of the records 
of a series of years enables a weather prophet to fore- 
tell storms, and even comparative healthfulness of sea- 
sons. But back of this lies simply an induction from 
facts and principles. 

Second, the predictions must deal in details suffi- 
ciently to exclude shrewd guesswork. General state- 
ments may be made with often a remarkable forecast 
of events ; but every definite, specific detail or de- 
scription adds to the improbability of its being an un- 
inspired utterance, until the improbability becomes 
impossibility. 

Third, there must be such a lapse of time, between 
prophecy and fulfillment, as to preclude the agency of 
the prophet himself in effecting or affecting the result. 
Otherwise the author of the prediction might, by se- 



66 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



cret, subtle means, bring about apparent accomplish- 
ment. 

These tests, applied to human guessing, will show 
how far man's predictions fall below the divine power 
of prophecy. It is to tests of this kind that the proph- 
ecies of the Bible can be submitted, and they more 
than meet all the requirements. We base our faith in 
the inspiration of the Bible, not upon one or two, 
but upon a vast number of prophecies giving detail 
after detail, and covering periods of more than a 
thousand years in their fulfillment. 

•There are more than fifteen hundred prophecies in 
the Bible, covering a large range of subjects. Of 
these nearly seven hundred pertain to particular events, 
— such as the destruction of Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, 
Sidon, Jerusalem, the cities of Egypt and the des- 
olation of different lands and countries. A careful 
investigation shows that a large number of these 
prophecies have been fulfilled in the minutest detail. 
So remarkable has been the fulfillment of the proph- 
ecies of the Bible concerning the ancient cities and 
countries that one scarcely needs to read more than 
the prophecy to become acquainted with the history 
of the places which were made the subject of proph- 
ecy. Surely in these cases one may say that prophecy 
is history and history is fulfilled prophecy. 




Jew of Jerusalem. 



CHAPTER SEVEN. 



Prophecies Concerning God's Chosen People. 

For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel 
among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall 
not the least grain fall upon the earth. — Amos 9: 9. 

It is related of Frederick the Great that on one 
occasion turning to his marshal, who was a devout 
believer in the Bible, he said to him : " Give me, in 
one word, a proof of the truth of the Bible." " The 
Jews," was the short, unanswerable reply. 

A better answer to the question of the great Ger- 
man conqueror could not have been given. This most 
singular race of people have dominated the world's 
history for thousands of years. Thirty-two hundred 
years ago we find them on the Sinaitic desert a band 
of liberated slaves escaping from Egyptian bondage 
in which they had been held for a long time. Forty 
years of wandering in the wilderness gave their great 
lawgiver Moses opportunity to warn them of the 
calamities and evils that would come upon them if they 
forgot God and wandered into sin and iniquity. The 
Ruler of all nations has dealt with no other people as 
He has with the Israelites. From Moses to Malachi 
the Jews were made the constant theme of prophecy, 
and remakable it is, notwithstanding the fact that very 

many of the predictions concerning them showed the 

69 



70 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

terrible fate in store for them, that they preserved all 
these prophecies with the greatest religious care. To 
read the prophecies concerning these people is to read, 
in a condensed form, a full and complete history of the 
Jews. Here, more than in any other known instance, it 
may be truthfully said that history is fulfilled prophecy. 
One author says : " The retrospect of the history of 
the Jews, since their dispersion, could not, at the 
present day, be drawn in truer terms than in the un- 
propitious auguries of their prophet above three thou- 
sand two hundred years ago. In the most ancient of 
all records, we read the lively representation of the 
present condition of the most singular people upon 
the earth." A millennium and a half of years these 
people were made the subject of numerous predictions 
by the prophets, the details of which may be num- 
bered by the score, and in no other nation of the earth 
is to be found the fulfillment of a single one of these 
predictions. 

Nearly two thousand years ago the Romans came 
upon them with the strength and ferocity of eagles 
and took away their place and nation. Including the 
destruction of Jerusalem, and their final struggle for 
national existence, in a flame of insurrection fanned 
among the dying embers of a once mighty race, 
which occurred a few years later, nearly a million and 
a half of the seed of Abraham fell under the edge of 
the sword. In their last expiring death struggle they 



THE JEWS GOD'S WITNESSES. Jl 

saw their towns and cities razed to the earth and their 
beloved country irretrievably ruined. The land which 
had been given to their fathers two thousand years 
before was wrenched from their grasp, their sons and 
daughters were sold into a slavery worse than death, 
and the remnant of their people were dispersed among 
all the nations of the earth. And yet, after passing 
through the greatest calamities that ever came upon 
any nation, these remarkable people have kept intact 
all their race peculiarities, their religion and their 
faith, and they are to-day a separate and distinct people 
from all other nations, as they have been for forty 
centuries. The Egyptians who enslaved them, the 
Assyrians who first carried them into captivity, the 
Romans who finally destroyed their nationality and 
country, great nations as they were, have all passed 
away, and you may search in vain for even a remnant 
of these at one time great world powers. The Israel- 
ite has outlived them all and is to-day the greatest liv- 
ing witness of the truth of the Bible in the world. 

To enumerate, even in the briefest possible manner, 
all the predictions concerning Israel and their full com- 
pletion in the history of this remarkable people, would 
be to extend this book far beyond its prescribed limits. 
At most only a few selections can be given. The rich- 
ness of the field, and the abundance of the material, 
makes, the selection a difficult task. Only such proph- 
ecies will be given as will best subserve the purpose of 



72 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

the present work, and these are given with the hope 
that in them the reader will find an impetus to search 
the Scriptures to see whether these things are so. 
The prophecies to be considered are given in a group, 
for by thus throwing them together one may, at a 
glance, get a good idea of what has been written. In 
this Keith's plan is followed in part. 

Concerning the evils and the calamities that should 
come upon the Jews if they forsook the way of God 
and fell into sin and iniquity, " the Lord spake unto 
Moses in Mount Sinai, Speak unto the children of 
Israel and say unto them, . . . And ye shall eat 
the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters 
shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, 
and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses 
upon the carcasses of your idols, and My soul shall 
abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and 
bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not 
smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will 
bring the land into desolation : and your enemies which 
dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will 
scatter thee among the heathen, and will draw out a 
sword after you : and your land shall be desolate and 
your cities waste. And upon them that are left alive 
of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the 
lands of their enemies ; and the sound of a shaken leaf 
shall chase them ; and they shall flee, as fleeing from 
the sword ; and they shall fall when none pursueth. 



PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE JEWS. 73 

And they shall fall one upon another, as it were be- 
fore a sword, when none pursueth : and ye shall have 
no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall 
perish among the heathen, and the land of your ene- 
mies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you 
shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands ; 
and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine 
away with them. And yet for all that, when they be 
in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, 
neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and 
to break my covenant with them : for I am the Lord 
their God." 1 

• The blessings that were to come in rich measure 
upon God's chosen people if they diligently hearkened 
unto the voice of God to observe and to do all His 
commandments, were followed by prophetical utter- 
ances of coming calamities and judgments if they 
failed to obey Him who spake from heaven. 

" The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before 
thine enemies : thou shalt go out one way against 
them, and flee seven ways before them : and 
shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the 
earth. And thy carcass shall be meat unto all the 
fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and 
no man shall fray them away. Thy sons and thy 
daughters shall be given unto another people, and 
thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them 

1 Lev. 26: 29-34; 36: 39-44- 



74 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine 
hand. The fruit of thy land, and all thy labors, shall 
a nation which thou knowest not eat up ; and thou 
shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway : so that 
thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which 
thou shalt see. The Lord shall bring thee, and the 
king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a na- 
tion which neither thou nor thy fathers have 
known ; and there shalt thou serve other gods, 
wood and stone. And thou shalt become an 
astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among 
all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. The 
stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee 
very high ; and thou shalt come down very low. He 
shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him : he 
shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. More- 
over all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall 
pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed ; 
because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the 
Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His 
statutes which He commanded thee : and they shall be 
upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy 
seed forever. Because thou servedst not the Lord thy 
God with joy fulness, and with gladness of heart, for 
the abundance of all things. Therefore thou shalt 
serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against 
thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in 
want of all things : and He shall put a yoke of iron up- 



PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE JEWS. 75 

on thy neck, until He have destroyed thee. And ye 
shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the 
stars of heaven for multitude ; because thou wouldst 
not obey the voice of the Lord thy God. And it shall 
come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do 
you good, and to multiply you ; so the Lord will rejoice 
over you to destroy you, and to bring you to naught ; 
and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou 
goest to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee 
among all people, from one end of the earth even unto 
the other ; and there thou shalt serve other gods, 
which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even 
wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou 
find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest : 
but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, 
and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind : and thy life 
shall hang in doubt before thee ; and thou shalt fear 
day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy 
life : in the morning thou shalt say, Would God it 
were even ! and at even thou shalt say, Would God 
it were morning! for the fear of thine heart where- 
with thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes 
which thou shalt see." 1 

The prophets succeeding Moses also took up the 
burden of prophecy and gave utterance to many pre- 
dictions similar to those already given. Isaiah, Jer- 
emiah, Ezekiel and a number of the minor prophets 

1 Deut. 28: 25, 26, 32-34. 36, 37> 43-48, 62-67. 



j6 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

unveiled the future and wrote, as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost, of those things that should 
certainly come upon the Jews because of their sin 
and iniquity. Many of the woes declared by Moses 
had come upon the people before the later prophets 
gave utterance to their denunciations of a people 
who refused to walk after the commandments of 
God. They hardened their hearts and closed their 
ears to the Word of the Lord and He sent these 
words to them by the mouth of Israel's greatest seer, 
Isaiah : 

" And He said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye 
indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but 
perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and 
make their ears heavy and shut their eyes ; lest they 
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and 
understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. 
Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, 
Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and 
the houses without man, and the land be utterly des- 
olate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and 
there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." 1 

Jeremiah suffered imprisonment at the hands of 
the Jews because he preached the truth to them, but 
he ceased not to denounce their wickedness and to 
foretell the judgments of God that were to come up- 
on them for evil doing. Hear the words of his proph- 

1 Isa. 6: 9-12. 



PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE JEWS. 77 

ecy : " I will cause them to be removed into all the 
kingdoms of the earth. . . \ Thou hast forsaken 
Me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward : there- 
fore will I stretch out My hand against thee, and 
destroy thee ; and I will fan them with a fan in the 
gates of the land ; I will bereave them of children, 
I will destroy My people, since they return not from 
their ways. Therefore will I cast you out of this 
land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor 
your fathers ; where I will not show you favor. I 
will feed them, even this people, with worm- 
wood, and give them water of gall to drink. I 
will scatter them among the heathen, whom neither 
they nor their fathers have known. And I will de- 
liver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of 
the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a prov- 
erb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I 
shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the 
famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be 
consumed from off the land that I gave unto them 
and to their fathers. And I will deliver them to 
be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a 
reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven 
them : because they have not hearkened to My words, 
saith the Lord." 1 

After revealing the future history of the Jews in 
the Scriptures already quoted, and setting forth the 



1 Jer. 15: 4, 6, 7; 16: 13; 9: 15, 16; 24: 9, 10; 29: 18, 19. 



yS THE ETERNAL VERITIES. • 

terrible calamities that would overtake them, there 
comes to them the comfort to be found in the fol- 
lowing words of the prophet : " But fear not thou, 

0 my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel : 
for, behold, I will save thee from afar off and thy 
seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob 
shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall 
make him afraid. Fear thou not, O Jacob my serv- 
ant, saith the Lord : for I am with thee ; for I will 
make a full end of all the nations whither I have 
driven thee : but I will not make a full end of thee, 
but correct thee in measure ; yet will I not leave 
thee wholly unpunished." 1 

Ezekiel and the minor prophets also took up the 
burden of prophecy against their own people and their 
kinsmen. The whole remnant of Israel was to be 
scattered to all the winds, and among the nations 
were they to be scattered and dispersed in the coun- 
tries, and " they shall cast their silver in the streets, 
and their gold shall be removed : their silver and their 
gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of 
the wrath of the Lord : they shall not satisfy their 
souls, neither fill their bowels : because it is the stum- 
blingblock of their iniquity." 2 " Behold, the eyes 
of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and 

1 will destroy it from off the face of the earth; sav- 
ing that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, 



1 Jer. 46 : 27, 28. 



2 Ezek. 7: 19. 



PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE JEWS. 79 

saith the Lord. For, lo, I will command, and I will 
sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as 
corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain 
fall upon the earth." 1 " For the children of Israel 
shall abide many days without a king, and with- 
out a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without 
an image, and without an ephod, and without a ter- 
aphim : afterward shall the children of Israel return, 
and seek the Lord their God, and David their king ; 
and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the lat- 
ter days." 2 

What a wonderful series of predictions is here giv- 
en concerning the awful judgments that were to come 
upon the Israelites in the future ! What a fullness 
of detail as to particular events which the centu- 
ries yet to come had in store for this remarkable peo- 
ple with whom God was, and is still, dealing. And 
then how clear, and in what simple words are the 
particulars of the predictions given. The very lan- 
guage used carries with it the conviction of truth 
and shows that the men who spoke were moved bv 
a power greater than themselves. Here is no guess- 
ing, no uncertainty, no ambiguity, no double mean- 
ing, no doubt as to what the prophets had in mind 
when, they spoke ; but here are plain, simple words 
that all may read and understand, just such words 
as one might expect the Holy Ghost to give to the 

1 Amos 9: 8, 9. -• : Hosea 3: 4, 5. 



80 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

holy men of God who spake as they were moved up- 
on by the Spirit. 

The heathen also had their soothsayers, their as- 
trologers, their wise men, their seers and their or- 
acles, but what a striking contrast is shown be- 
tween the predictions of the prophets of the Most 
High God and the deliverances of the oracles and 
seers of the pagan religion. The ancient sibylline 
books of the Romans and the famous Delphic or- 
acle of the Greeks were frequently consulted by em- 
perors, kings, and great generals, but it required large 
sums of money to induce the guardians of the ora- 
cles to speak, and only the rich and powerful could 
have access to the temple and secure doubtful pre- 
dictions from the so-called prophets. And when 1;hey 
did speak, their words were so adroitly construct- 
ed, and so ambiguous in meaning, that they might 
readily be construed to mean two or more different 
things. One is amazed, when reading the so-called 
predictions of the heathen oracles, at the unequaled 
credulity of those who laid their treasures of gold 
at the feet of the priestess, hoping to receive in re- 
turn a favorable answer to their questions concern- 
ing the future. Let us compare the following ex- 
amples of the obscure, ambiguous, double meaning 
utterances of the pagan oracles with the plain, sim- 
ple, clear, concise predictions of the prophets of God. 

Croesus, the wealthy sovereign of Lydia, in Asia 



HEATHEN ORACLES. 8 1 

Minor, whose name for centuries has been used to 
denote great riches, consulted the Delphian oracle 
as to whether he should go out in battle to the Per- 
sians who' were marching against him. The reply 
was, " By crossing Halys, Crcesus will destroy a 
mighty power." 

The Lydian monarch went into battle believing that 
it was the Persian power that was to be destroyed, 
but learned to his great sorrow that it was his own. 
The words of the oracle were so cunningly construct- 
ed that whether Crcesus or the Persians suffered de- 
feat the claim could be made that the event had 
been foretold. 

Before Maxentius left Rome to meet Constantine 
in the famous battle of the Tiber, in which he was 
overwhelmingly defeated and drowned in the river 
by the weight of his own armor, he consulted the 
guardians of the sibylline books as to whether he 
should be victorious in the coming conflict. " The 
guardians of the ancient oracles were as well versed 
in the arts of the world as they were ignorant of 
the secrets of fate; and they returned him a very 
prudent answer, which might adapt itself to; the event, 
and secure their reputation, whatever should be the 
chance of arms." The answer to the question as 
to the issue of the day of battle was as follows : 

" On that day the enemy of Rome will perish." 



82 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Had Maxentius lived after his defeat to reproach 
the oracle with falsehood, how the double dealing 
guardian of the sibylline books would have turned 
upon him and said, " Thou art the enemy of Rome 
to whom the words of the oracle refer; great are 
the sibylline books." If Ccnstantine had been de- 
feated, then he would have been the enemy of Rome 
that was to have perished. How cunningly the an- 
swer was given to make the honor of the oracle 
secure and to court favor with the victor. 

When Pyrrhus consulted the oracles as to the ad- 
visability of his going to war with the Romans he 
was encouraged with the following obscure, ambig- 
uous words, in which the double meaning is appar- 
ent to every intelligent reader : 

" I declare thee, O Pyrrhus, the Romans to be able 
to conquer." 

Had the Greek been victorious over his enemies, 
or had he returned to his own country defeated and 
dismayed, as he did, the reputation, of the oracle was 
safe and its honor secure. Nothing of this character 
is to be found in the predictions in the Bible con- 
cerning the Jews. You may search the record from 
beginning to end, and not a single ambiguous ex- 
pression will be found. The details are so clearly 
given that there is not the slightest doubt as to the 
meaning. 



MOTHER SHIPTON'S PREDICTIONS. 83 

Before examining the fulfillment of the prophe- 
cies concerning the Jews attention is called to a so- 
called modern prophecy known as Mother Shipton's 
prediction. Dr. Pierson has this to say about it: 
"Some years ago it appeared as a relic of a remote day, 
and claimed to have predicted the invention of steam 
as a motive power, diving suits, balloons, a threefold 
revolution in France ; the rise of Disraeli, the Jew, 
as a figure in English politics, the erection of a 
crystal palace, etc. After its first appearance it was 
almost .forgotten. Years later it reappeared, with a 
few very slight changes in the rhyme, such as to 
be scarcely noticed, and yet so including recent events 
as to make this ' prophecy ' seem more startling. At 
times in arguing with skeptics I was met by the state- 
ment that here was an ignorant woman who lived 
four hundred years ago, and who had written an 
* uninspired prophecy which was of undoubted an- 
tiquity, and, however rude in shape, containing sev- 
eral remarkable predictions.' So for years I have 
been trying to unearth and expose what seemed to 
me a huge imposture, and, having succeeded, here 
record the result. My first clue to the forgery was 
the discovery that at least three separate and differ- 
ent versions had been put before the people. The 
changes or variations were slight and sly, adroitly 
accommodating the pretended prophecy to the new 
developments of current history : till at last the whole 



84 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

thing has been traced to Charles Hindley, who ac- 
knowledges himself the author of this prophetic hoax, 
which was written in 1862 instead of 1448, and 
palmed off on a credulous public! It is one of the 
startling proofs of human perversity that the very 
people who will try to cast suspicion on prophecies 
two thousand years old, will, without straining, swal- 
low a forgery that was first published forty years 
ago, and not even look into- its claims to antiquity." 

The antiquity of the predictions of the Bible is un- 
questioned. At least two centuries before the Chris- 
tian era the Book of God, with its prophecies, was 
translated from the Hebrew into the Greek. The an- 
cient copies of the Book are among the oldest rec- 
ords in the world. There cannot be the slightest 
doubt that the predictions were all made long be- 
fore the occurrence of the events foretold. In many 
instances centuries elapsed before the sure word of 
prophecy was completed, and the inspired predictions 
of the holy men of God became the history of the 
Jews. First, in point of time, came the captivity of 
Israel and the destruction of Solomon's temple by 
the king of Babylon. Returning again from the riv- 
ers of Babylon to their beloved Zion they rebuilt 
the walls and restored the temple and the waste places 
of Jerusalem. The -lessons of the captivity brought 
• them to consider their ways, and they were for a 
time faithful to God. But they soon forgot whence 



PALESTINE MADE DESOLATE. 85 

they came, and fell into sin. Then came their sub- 
mission to Alexander the Great, who was speedily 
followed by the Romans who finally took away their 
place and nation. These last events were clearly fore- 
told twelve centuries before their occurrence. 

Their cities were laid waste, their sanctuaries 
brought to desolation, and in anger and wrath they 
were plucked out of the land which God had given 
their fathers. The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, 
with its terrible calamities and fearful judgments, was 
the beginning of the end of the Jewish nation. Re- 
covering from the shock and slaughter occasioned by 
the destruction of their capital and the desolation of 
their holy sanctuary, they gathered their scattered 
hosts together to make their last expiring struggle 
against their enemies and strike their last blow for 
liberty and nationality. Scarcely sixty years had 
elapsed, after Titus had destroyed Jerusalem, when, led 
by the false hopes inspired by a pretended Messiah and 
by love for the country which heaven had given them, 
they made their last supreme, but ineffectual, effort 
to drive the Roman legions from their country and 
to regain their freedom from the intolerable oppres- 
sion of their enemies. Two years of alternating hope 
and despair, of frightful slaughter, of terrible fam- 
ine and pestilence, and the end, so long and persist- 
ently foretold by the . prophets, came. The Jewish 
nation was destroyed. Their enemies, exasperated be- 



86 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



yond measure, dealt them a blow from which they 
have not yet recovered. They were literally plucked 
out of their land and were dispersed among all the 
nations of the earth. Their cities were destroyed and 
left without an inhabitant. Fifty cf their strongholds 
were razed to the ground, and not one stone was 
left on another that was not thrown down, and so 
complete was the destruction that the very sites oi 
many of their most populous cities have been lost 
for centuries. Judea was laid waste as a desert, and 
all the land was made desolate. The Romans de- 
stroyed the timber on the hills and mountains, and 
the early and the latter rains ceased. The land that 
once flowed with milk and honey became a wasted 
wilderness. In the last great struggle hundreds of 
thousands ■ of Jews fell by the edge of the sword, 
and their enemies only ceased from their terrible work 
when worn out by the incessant massacre. Those 
who escaped the edge of the sword were taken by 
force from Palestine and sold into slavery in the 
principal slave marts of the empire, and it is said 
that so many were offered for sale that buyers ceased 
to bid for human merchandise. No consideration was 
paid to age, sex or condition in life. The Roman 
heart knew not the meaning of the word pity, and 
at their hands all suffered alike. No nation of people 
ever suffered as the Jews without becoming extinct. 
With all their suffering, their hardships and the ca- 



PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. &7 

lamities that have come to them, they are still Jews. 
In every nation under the sun they are to be found, 
keeping their race peculiarities, their religion, and ev- 
ery distinction of their once prosperous nationality. 
Their cities have been wasted and are left without 
an inhabitant, are forsaken with no man dwelling 
in them, and they have been rooted out of the land 
which God gave to their fathers ; in anger, and in 
wrath, and in great indignation have they been plucked 
out. 1 

But their calamities and sufferings did not Cease 
when they were driven away from their homeland. 
They became a reproach, a byword, a hissing and 
an astonishment among all the nations of the earth. 
Laws of the utmost severity were enacted against 
them. Adrian, emperor of Rome, made it an of- 
fense punishable with death for a Jew to set foot in 
Jerusalem, and they were not even permitted to look 
upon the city from a distance. From the days of 
Adrian to. the present time edict after edict has been 
promulgated banishing these people from city to city 
and from country to country. The last example is 
to be found in the ukase of the Czar of Russia, issued 
in the last decade of the nineteenth century, ban- 
ishing the Jews from his realms. Basnage in his his- 
tory of the Jews says: "Kings have often employed 
the severity of their edicts, and the hands of ex- 

1 Isa. 6: ri; Jer. 4: 29; D.eut. 29: 28. • - 



88 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



ecutioners, to destroy them; the seditious multitude 
has performed massacres, and executions infinitely 
more tragical than princes. Both kings and people, 
heathens, Christians, and Mohammedans, who are so 
opposite in so many things, have united in the de- 
sign of ruining this nation, and have not been able 
to effect it. The bush of Moses, surrounded with 
flames, has always burnt without consuming. The 
Jews have been driven from all places of the world, 
which has only served to disperse them more fully. 
They have, from age to age, run through misery 
and persecution, and torrents of blood." 

Another author writing of the dispersion of the 
Jews says that the extent of this is more remark- 
able than its manner. Many prophecies described it, 
and foretold, thousands of years ago, what we now 
behold. They have been scattered among *the hea- 
then — among the people, even from one end of the 
earth unto the other. They have been removed in- 
to all the kingdoms of the earth ; the whole remnant 
of them has been scattered into all the winds ; they 
have been dispersed throughout all countries, and 
have been sifted in a sieve, and yet not the least 
grain has fallen to the earth : though dispersed 
throughout all nations, they have remained distinct 
from them all. There is not a country on the face 
of the earth where the Jews are unknown. They 
are found alike in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Amer- 



PERSECUTION OF 'THE JEWS. 89 

ica. They are citizens of the world without a coun- 
try. Neither mountains, nor rivers, nor deserts, nor 
oceans, which are the boundaries of other nations, 
have terminated their wanderings. They abound in 
Poland, in Holland, in Russia, and in Turkey. In 
Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and Britain they are 
more thinly scattered. In Persia, China, and India, 
on the east and the west of the Ganges, they 
are few in number among the heathen. They have 
trod the snows of Siberia, and the sands of the burn- 
ing desert; and the European traveler hears of their 
•existence in regions which he cannot reach, even in 
the very interior of Africa, south of Timbuctoo. 
From Moscow to Lisbon, from Japan to Britain, from 
Borneo to Archangel, from Hindostan to Honduras, 
no inhabitant of any nation upon the earth would 
be known in all the intervening regions but a Jew 
alone. 1 

After the dispersion of the Jews they found nei- 
ther rest nor peace in the countries to which they fled 
for refuge. They found no place where they might 
set their feet and make for themselves a home and 
a country. They were despised and persecuted and 
driven from place to place until their hearts failed 
them with trembling, and in no spot on all the earth 
could they stand before their enemies. They became 
a despised race of peddlers whom the children stoned 

1 Keith, pp. 74, 75. 



go THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

and jeered on the highway and in the streets of 
the towns and cities. Literally, and to the very let- 
ter, was the prophecy fulfilled that children should 
be their princes and rule over them. As we have 
already noted, the most cruel laws were enacted 
against them. Constantine, after suppressing a re- 
volt among them, cut off the ears of the survivors 
and banished them from his empire. They went forth 
wandering vagabonds on the face of the earth, bear- 
ing the marks of the cruelty of the Roman emperor 
and their own disgrace with them. In the fifth cen- 
tury they were driven out of Alexandria, Egypt, with 
great cruelty. Here, for a time, they had been al- 
lowed to live in comparative quiet, and were led to 
believe that at last they had found a home ; but 
they were cruelly deceived. They found no lasting 
abode, neither in Alexandria, nor in any other place 
in the world. Justinian issued a decree abolishing 
their synagogues and even forbidding them to enter 
caves and dens for the purpose of worship. He made 
their testimony inadmissible in courts of justice and 
deprived them of the right to bequeath their prop- 
erty. Heraclius persecuted them with cruelties too 
horrible to mention, and using his great influence 
had them persecuted in all parts of Europe and Asia. 
Suffering, despised, a proverb, and a byword in ev- 
ery land, they wandered with the curse of God upon 
them. 



PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. Cjl 

During the Middle Ages the condition of the Jews 
was not better than it had been in the first centu- 
ries of the present era. In Spain the inquisition, 
with its secret councils and its frightful in- 
struments of torture, was invented to punish the 
Jews. The rack, the thumbscrew, the iron boot, 
heated until the flesh was roasted in it, were all 
used in torturing the unfortunate sons of Jacob. The 
only alternatives left them were conversion, banish- 
ment or death. One hundred and seventy thousand 
families were deprived of their property and driven 
from Spain at one time. In many parts of Europe 
they were compelled to wear a peculiar form of dress 
so that all might know and abuse them at their 
own will and pleasure. The Polish Jews are still 
to be recognized by their dress, for they have clung 
to the costume forced on their fathers four hun- 
dred or more years ago. 

The Roman Catholic church has always treated 
the Jews as heretics. The great councils of the church 
enacted many laws against them. It was enjoined 
that no member of the church should eat with them 
or have any business relation with them. It was 
decreed that their children should be taken from them 
and be brought up. in monasteries. They seemed to 
have no rights which a member of the Catholic church 
was bound to respect. It is a singular comment on 
the prevailing sentiment among the people in the 



92 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Midddle Ages that it was found necessary to pass 
a iaw forbidding any one to kill a Jew without good 
and sufficient cause.. The same sentiment makes it 
necessary to pass a law in the city of Chicago in 
the twentieth century, forbidding boys to throw stones 
at Jewish peddlers. 

Hallam in his history of the Middle Ages says 
of the Jews: "They were everywhere the objects of 
popular insult and oppression, frequently of general 
massacre. A time of festivity to others was often 
the season of mockery and persecution to them. It 
was the custom at Toulouse to smite them on the 
face at Easter. At Beziers they were attacked with 
stones from Palm Sunday to Easter, an anniversary 
of insult and cruelty generally productive of blood- 
shed, and to which the populace were regularly in- 
stigated by a sermon from the bishop. It was the 
policy of the kings of France to employ them as a 
sponge to suck their subjects' money, , which they 
might afterward express with less odium than di- 
rect taxation would incur. It is almost incredible 
to what length extortion of money from the Jews 
was carried. A series of alternate persecution and 
tolerance was borne by this extraordinary people with 
an invincible perseverance, and a talent of accumu- 
lating riches, which kept pace with the exactions of 
their plunderers. Philip Augustus released all Chris- 
tians in his dominions from their debts to the Jews, 



' PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 93 

reserving a fifth part to himself. He afterward ex- 
pelled the whole nation from France." Again how 
literally are the words of the prophet fulfilled : " They 
shall cast their silver in the streets, and their 
gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall 
not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath 
of the Lord." 

In England, during and after the Crusades, the 
whole nation united in a most cruel persecution of 
the Jews, and they were made to suffer on every 
hand. The very name became a reproach and byword, 
and many, to escape the most cruel punishments, de- 
nied that they belonged to the " accursed race." In 
the city of York fifteen hundred of these miserable 
people were denied all quarter, and men, women and 
children suffered death in the most horrible manner. 
Their silver and gold were extorted from them with- 
out regard to law or right, and finally, in A. D. 1280, 
Edward the First seized all their property and ban- 
ished them from his kingdom, and four hundred years 
elapsed before they were* permitted to return to Eng- 
land again. 

As in England, France and Spain, so in other coun- 
tries in Europe, the Jews were made to suffer ex- 
tortion and persecution. They were entirely cut off 
from their fellow-citizens and were socially ostracised ; 
more so than are the negroes in the South to-day. 
They were excluded by law from the ownership of 



94 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

land, and this answers the question why more Jews are 
not engaged in agriculture. They were cut off from 
all trades except that of peddling in old clothes, and 
were even forbidden to buy certain classes of these. 
They were entirely excluded from some towns and 
cities and limited as to numbers and place of abode 
in others. In these latter they were confined to the 
ghettos, Jewish quarters, and to Judengassen, Jew 
streets. They were compelled to pay a poll tax ev- 
ery time they crossed the boundary of a petty coun- 
ty or went into a city, if it were twenty times a day. 
They were forbidden to marry except under restrict 
tions intended to check the growth of the Jewish pop- 
ulation. They were robbed of their money by proc- 
ess of law. They were personally tolerated by Fred- 
erick the Great in Prussia, but their right of abode 
extended to merely one child* in a family, and for 
the right of a second child the sum of seventy thou- 
sand thalers had to be paid into the king's treasury. 
A poor Jew was not allowed to marry under anv, 
circumstances. And so the list of their hardships, 
their deprivations and sufferings • might be carried to 
an indefinite length. But why continue? He who 
cares to read the history of this remarkable people 
will find a record of fulfilled prophecy which is among 
the greatest miracles of God's Book. And not the 
least surprising thing in the whole record is the fact 



THE JEWS AN EVIDENCE OF INSPIRATION. 95 

that through all the suffering and deprivations he 
has endured, the Jew is still a Jew. 

In concluding this chapter, which leaves much that 
might be written, we can say with Keith that such are 
the prophecies and the facts respecting the Jews ; and 
from premises like these the feeblest logician may 
draw a moral demonstration. If they had been utter- 
ly destroyed ; if they had mingled among the nations ; 
if, in the space of nearly eighteen centuries after their 
dispersion, they had become extinct as a people; even 
if they had been secluded in a single region, and had 
remained united ; if their history had been like the 
history of any other nation upon the earth, an attempt 
might, with some show of reason, have been made to 
show cause why the prediction of their fate, however 
true to fact, ought not in such case to be sustained as 
evidence of the truth of inspiration. Or if the past 
history and present state of the Jews were not of a 
nature so singular and peculiar as to bear out to the 
very letter the truth of the prophecies concerning 
them, with what triumph would the infidel have 
produced these very prophecies as fatal to the idea 
of the inspiration of the Scriptures ! And when the 
Jews have been scattered throughout the whole earth ; 
when they have remained everywhere a distinct 
race; when they have been despoiled evermore, and 
yet never destroyed; when the most wonderful and 
amazing facts, such as never occurred among any 



96 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

people, form the ordinary narrative of their history, 
and fulfill literally the prophecies concerning them, 
may not the believer challenge his adversary to the 
production of such credential of the faith that is in 
him? They present an unbroken chain of evidence, 
each link a prophecy and a fact, extending through- 
out a multitude of generations, and not yet termi- 
nated. Though the events, various and singular as 
they are, have been brought about by the instru- 
mentality of human means, and the agency of sec- 
ondary causes, yet they are equally prophetic and 
miraculous; for the means were as impossible to be 
foreseen as the end, and the causes were as inscru- 
table as the event; and they have been, and still 
in numberless instances are, accomplished by the 
instrumentality of the enemies of Christianity. 
Whosoever seeks a miracle may here behold a sign 
and wonder, than which there can be none greater. 
And the Christian may bid defiance to all assaults 
of his enemies from this stronghold of Christianity, 
impenetrable and impregnable on every side. 

The prophecies concerning the Jews are as clear 
as a narrative of the events. They are as ancient 
as the oldest records in existence ; and it has never 
been denied that they were all delivered before the 
accomplishment of one of them. They were so un- 
imaginable by human wisdom that the whole com- 
pass of nature has never exhibited a parallel to the 



THE JEWS AN EVIDENCE OF INSPIRATION. 97 



events. And the facts are visible, and present, and 
applicable even to a hairbreadth. Could Moses, as 
an uninspired mortal, have described the history, the 
fate, the dispersion, the treatment, the dispositions 
of the Israelites to the present day, or for three 
thousand two hundred years, seeing that he was 
astonished and amazed, on his descent from Sinai, 
at the change in their sentiments and in their con- 
duct in the space of forty days? Could various 
persons have testified, in different ages, of the self- 
same and of similar facts, as wonderful as they have 
proved to be true? Could they have divulged so 
many secrets of futurity, when of necessity they 
were ignorant of them all? The probabilities are 
infinite against them. For the mind of man often 
fluctuates in uncertainty over the nearest events 
and the most probable results ; but in regard to re- 
mote ages, when thousands of years shall have 
elapsed, and to facts respecting them, contrary to 
all previous knowledge, experience, analogy, or con- 
ception, it feels that they are dark as death to mor- 
tal ken. And, viewing only the dispersion of the 
Jews, and some of its attendant circumstances ; how 
their city was laid desolate ; their temple, which 
formed the constant place of their resort before, 
leveled with the ground and plowed over like a 
field ; their country ravaged, and themselves mur- 
dered in mass ; falling before the sword, the famine 



gS THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

and the pestilence ; how a remnant was left, but de- 
spoiled, persecuted, enslaved, and led into captiv- 
ity; driven from their own land, not to a moun- 
tainous retreat where they might subsist with safe- 
ty, but dispersed among all nations, and left to the 
mercy of the world that everywhere hated and op- 
pressed them ; shattered in pieces like the wreck of 
a vessel in a mighty storm ; scattered over the 
earth, like fragments on the waters, and instead of 
disappearing or mingling with the nations, remain- 
ing a perfectly distinct people, in every kingdom 
the same, retaining similar habits and customs, and 
creeds, and manners, in every part of the globe, 
though without ephod, teraphim, or sacrifice ; meet- 
ing everywhere the same insult, and mockery, and 
oppression ; finding no resting place without an 
enemy soon to dispossess them ; 'multiplying amidst 
all their miseries ; surviving their enemies ; beholding, 
unchanged, the extinction of many nations, and 
the convulsion of all ; robbed of their silver and 
of their gold, though cleaving to the love of them 
still, as the stumbling-block of their iniquity ; often 
bereaved of their very children; disjoined and dis- 
organized, but uniform and unaltered ; ever bruised, 
but never broken ; weak, fearful, sorrowful, and 
afflicted; often driven to madness at the spectacle 
of their own misery; taken up in the lips of talkers; 
the taunt and hissing and infamy of all people, and 



THE SCRIPTURES INSPIRED. * 99 

continuing ever, what they are to this day, the sole 
common proverb to the whole world, how did every 
fact, from its very nature, defy all conjecture, and 
how could mortal man, overlooking a hundred suc- 
cessive generations, have foretold any one of the 
wonders that are now conspicuous in these latter 
times? Who but the Father of spirits, possessed 
of perfect knowledge of the will and of the actions 
of free, intelligent, and moral agents, could have 
revealed their unbounded and yet unceasing wan- 
derings, unveiled their destiny, and unmasked the 
minds of the Jews and their enemies, in every age 
and in every clime? The creation of the world 
might as well be the work of chance as the revela- 
tion of these things. It is a visible display of the 
power and the prescience of God, an accumulation of 
many miracles. And although it forms but a small 
portion of the Christian evidences, it lays not only a 
stone of stumbling, such as infidels would try to 
cast in a Christian's path, but it fixes an insur- 
mountable barrier at the very threshold of infidelity, 
immovable by all human device, and impervious to 
every attack. 1 

1 Jveith on Prophecy, pp. 88, 89. 



LoFC. 



CHAPTER EIGHT. 



The Destruction of Jerusalem. 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 
and stoncst them which are sent unto thee, how often would 
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gather- 
etli her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Be- 
hold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto 
you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed 
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord —Matt. 23: 37-39. 

Of all the cities of the world, ancient or modern, 
none occupies a more important place in history 
than the city of Jerusalem. To Jew, Moslem and 
Christian it is alike a sacred, holy place. Nearly 
two thousand years ago, on a green hillock, in the 
early springtime, just outside the grim old walls 
of the city of David, the world's greatest tragedy 
was enacted. A young man, in the prime of life, 
was put to death on the cross as a common crim- 
inal, and yet from the life, and character, and teach- 
ing of that man an influence went out that has 
changed the face of the world. With Jesus dead 
on the cross, His few uneducated, illiterate and 
despised disciples scattered and in hiding, who but 
God could have told of the future triumph and 
glory of the Cross? 

" Right forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne ! 
But that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim un- 
known 

100 



DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM FORETOLD. IOI 

Standeth God amid the shadows, keeping watch above His 
own." 

And so the tragedy that took place hard by the 
old city of Jerusalem, on the hill shaped like unto 
a human skull, became the greatest blessing the 
world has ever known, and to the cross of Christ 
the ends of the earth are coming to be saved. 

Before the death of our Lord He had told His 
disciples of the fate that was in store for the city 
of which He could truthfully say, " Thou that kill- 
est the prophets and stonest them which are sent 
unto thee." His prophecies concerning the de- 
struction of Jerusalem startled His disciples ; but 
long before His birth like calamities had been fore- 
told by the prophets of God. While the Israelites 
were still wandering in the wilderness, before their 
triumphant entry into the land of Palestine, the 
destruction that was to come upon them because 
of their departure from God's laws was foretold. 
It was more than a thousand years before proph- 
ecies concerning the sifting of Israel were all ful- 
filled, but in the destruction of Jerusalem the end 
so long predicted came, and the commonwealth of 
Israel which had endured for fifteen hundred years 
disappeared from among the nations of the earth. 

The prophecies are clear and easily understood: 
"The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from 
far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle 



102 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



flieth ; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not under- 
stand; a nation of fierce countenance, which regard 
not the person of the old, nor show favor to the 
young: and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and 
the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: 
which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, 
or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy 
sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall 
besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and 
defenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, 
throughout all thy land'." 1 

In every particular this prophecy, which was but 
an introduction to others, has been fulfilled. When 
God raised up the power of Rome and brought her 
legions from afar to eat up the fruit of Palestine 
and to destroy a people that would not obey Him, 
the prophecy met its full completion. The Romans 
were a cruel, bloodthirsty race of people. Their 
empire extending over the known world, they were 
almost constantly at war and thus became inured 
to its hardships, and the Roman soldier was known 
by his fierce countenance, his swiftness of foot and 
his innate cruelty. In times of peace only such 
sports satisfied him as resulted in bloodshed and 
death. The gladiatorial contests and the fighting 
with wild beasts were his common pastime. When 

2 Deut. 28: 49-52. 



AS SWIFT AS THE EAGLE FLIETH. IO3 

these fierce, warlike, cruel soldiers entered Pales- 
tine there was a striking contrast between them 
and the Oriental soldiers whom they met in con- 
flict. The eagle was the royal standard of Rome 
under which her armies marched, and such was the 
celerity of movement, and the activity they dis- 
played in conquering Judea, that the prophet could 
not have used a more striking figure of speech in 
describing them than by saying of them they are 
" as swift as the eagle flieth." The legions of Ves- 
pasian, Adrian, and Severus were brought from 
Britain, the farthest limit of the Roman world, and 
hurled upon the defenseless Jews of Palestine. In 
all the cities of the land, including Jerusalem it- 
self, great slaughter of the Jews resulted. No dis- 
tinction was paid to age, sex or condition in life. 
The aged father in Israel, mothers with babes in 
their arms, young men and maidens, — the latter suf- 
fering a fate worse than death, — and children were 
alike slain by the most cruel soldiery in the world. 
Those who escaped the edge of the sword were en- 
slaved or banished to remote parts of the empire, 
their possessions were confiscated and their homes 
destroyed. Every city was broken down and their 
high walls of defense in which they trusted in vain 
were razed to the ground. The kingdom of Israel 
was brought low in humiliation. It became for a 



104 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

time a Roman province and then the personal prop- 
erty of the emperor. 

As noted, the prophecy just considered was but 
the introduction to others of still greater suffering, 
want and wretchedness than have preceded. Read 
what is predicted and then study the history of its 
fulfillment, and be convinced that the statement 
that history is prophecy fulfilled is true. " And 
thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh 
of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord 
thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the 
straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress 
thee. So that the man that is tender among you, 
and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his 
brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and to- 
ward the remnant of his children which he shall 
leave : so that he will not give to any of them the 
flesh of his children whom he shall eat : because he 
hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the strait- 
ness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee 
in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman 
among you, which would not adventure to set the 
sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness 
and tenderness, her eyes shall be evil toward the 
husband of her bosom, and toward her son and to- 
ward her daughter, and toward her young and to- 
ward the children which she shall bear: for she 
shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the 



DISTRESS DURING SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. IO5 

siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall 
distress thee in thy gates." 1 

While many instances are to be found in study- 
ing the history of the Jews in which some of the 
details of this most striking and awful prediction 
appear, its final and full completion is to be found 
only in the destruction of Jerusalem. When Sa- 
maria was besieged a terrible famine prevailed in 
the city, and we are informed that a compact was 
entered into by two mothers to consume their own 
offspring, and the agreement was in part consum- 
mated. 2 When the Assyrians came up against Je- 
rusalem and besieged it, a grievous famine of un- 
usual severity prevailed so that there was no bread 
for the people of the city, or of the land. Great 
suffering was endured, but not in all the details did 
it equal the awful condition set forth by the prophet 
fifteen hundred years before its final fulfillment. 
And yet the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar 
furnished a completion of many of the details, of 
the prophecy. Keith says that the famine was too 
powerful for all other passions, for what was other- 
wise reverenced was in this case despised. Jose- 
phus in his history of the siege relates the dire ca- 
lamities which fell upon the Jews in their last siege, 
before they ceased to have a city. Children 
snatched the food out of the very mouths of their 

1 Deut. 28: 53-57. 2 2 Kings 6: 26-29. 



106 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

parents ; and even mothers, overcoming the tender- 
est feelings of nature, took from their perishing 
infants the last morsel that could sustain their 
lives. In every house where there was the least 
particle of food, a contest arose for its possession ; 
and the nearest relatives struggled with each other 
for a miserable means of subsistence. Revolting 
detail after detail is related by the Jewish historian 
until the heart sickens at the terrible revelation of 
the awful doom that fell upon the Holy City. Jo- 
sephus gives the harrowing details of a noble lady 
of high birth killing, with her own hands, and eat- 
ing secretly her own suckling child, the discovery 
of which struck even the whole city with horror. 
This, with the inhuman compact between the Sa- 
maritan mothers, gives in part the fulfillment of the 
prophecy. How true that the eye of man was thus 
evil towards his brother, in the siege and in the 
straitness wherewith their enemies distressed them. 
The prophet Jeremiah bitterly laments over the 
miseries of the siege which he witnessed in these 
words : " The hands of the pitiful women have 
sodden their own children : they were their meat in 
the destruction of the daughter of my people. The 
Lord hath accomplished His fury; He hath poured 
out His fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, 
and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. The 
kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the 



JESUS' PROPHECY CONCERNING JERUSALEM. IO7 

world, would not have believed that the adversary 
and the enemy should have entered into the gates 
of Jerusalem." 1 

The prophecies recorded in the Old Testament, 
which find their fulfillment in the destruction " of 
Jerusalem, are in full harmony and agreement with 
the predictions made by our Lord when, with sor- 
rowful heart and eyes dimmed with tears, He told 
His disciples of the coming siege and destruction 
of the Holy City. The prophets of old had de- 
clared that Jerusalem should be encamped round 
about, that forts should be raised up against it, 
that it should be plowed . over and that the city 
should become heaps. A glimpse at the words 
of Jesus will show how they accord with the mi- 
nutest details of former prophecies on the same sub- 
ject: " And Jesus went out, and departed from the 
temple : and His disciples came to Him for to show 
Him the buildings of the temple., And Jesus said unto 
them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto 
you, There shall not be left here one stone upon 
another, that shall not be thrown down. And as 
He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came 
unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall 
these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy 
coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus 
answered and said unto them, Take heed that no 



1 Lam. 4: 10-12. 



108 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, 
saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And 
ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars : see that 
ye be not troubled : for all these things must come 
to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall 
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom : 
and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and 
earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the 
beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you 
up to be afflicted, and shall kill you : and ye shall 
be hated of all nations for My name's sake. And 
then shall many be offended, and shall betray one 
another, and shall hate one another. And many 
false prophets shall rise, and deceive many. And 
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many 
shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the 
end, the same shall be saved. And this Gospel of 
the kingdom shall be preached unto all the world 
for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the 
end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomi- 
nation of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the 
prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, 
let him understand:) then let them which be in Ju- 
dea flee into the mountains : let him which is on 
the housetop not come down to take anything out 
of his house : neither let him which is in the field 
return back to take his clothes. And woe unto 
them that are with child, and to them that give 



JESUS' PROPHECY CONCERNING JERUSALEM. IO9 

suck in those days ! For there shall be great dis- 
tress in the land, and wrath upon this people ; and 
they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall 
be led captive into all nations. There shall be great 
tribulation, such as was not from the beginning 
of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be ; and 
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, 
until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. This 
generation shall not pass away until all these things 
be done." 1 

" And when He was come near, He beheld the 
city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, 
even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which 
belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee, that 
thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and 
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 
and they shall lay thee even with the ground, and 
thy children within thee ; and they shall not leave 
one stone upon another; because thou knewest not 
the time, of thy visitation." 2 

These words of our Lord were spoken thirty- 
seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem and 
only a short time before his death, and so remark- 
ably were they fulfilled when Jerusalem was de- 
stroyed by the Romans that some of the enemies of 
the truth have taken refuge behind the statement 

1 Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21. 2 Luke 19: 4W4- 



no 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



that the prophecy was written after the events oc- 
curred. It is well to meet these objections. Pier- 
son, writing on the ruin of Jerusalem, refers to this 
criticism saying that " any fair examination of this 
matter compels us first to ask whether there be a 
reasonable certainty that these prophetic words 
were spoken or written before the events occurred. 
This inquiry is at the very threshold of the whole 
investigation ; to avoid it is to let everything else 
go unproved. A candid criticism can the less evade 
the issue, since it is forced upon us by the foes of 
the Christian religion. Porphyry, in the third cen- 
tury of the Christian era, made a desperate attack 
upon the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Find- 
ing in the book of Daniel a prophecy that had been 
most minutely fulfilled, he first admitted with the 
utmost frankness that in every particular history 
verified the prophecy ; and then adroitly turned his 
admission into a weapon of attack, arguing that a 
record so exact could only be made after the events : 
Daniel (he said) played the part of a historian in 
the mask of a prophet. If Porphyry was the first 
to suggest this easy escape from the argument of 
the prophecy, he was not the last. Voltaire, in 
modern times, has, in the same way, admitted the 
wonderful coincidence between those prophecies of 
the ruin of Jerusalem and the wreck of the Jewish 
nation, and the actual facts ; but dexterously argues 



Voltaire's objection of no weight. hi 



that the pretended prophecy was never spoken or 
penned until after Jerusalem was destroyed. 1 

" As to Voltaire himself, any objection coming 
from such a source has very little weight. A 
man who could, in a letter to a friend, declare that 
' history is, after all, nothing but a parcel of tricks 
we play with the dead,' and that, ' as for portraits 
of men in biography, they are, nearly all, the cre- 
ations of fancy;' a man who, when asked where he 
found a certain startling ' fact ' with which he 
adorns one of his histories, replied, ' It is a frolic of 
my imagination ! ' a man whose motto was, ' Crush 
the wretch ! ' and yet who called on that same 
Christ in his dying hour; a man who, after leading 
the hosts of skeptics and scoffers, as the boldest of 
blasphemers, for sixty years, died in agony and re- 
morse so terrible that even Marechal de Richelieu 
fled from his bedside declaring that he could not 
bear so terrible a sight, and M. Tronchin affirmed 
that ' the furies of Orestes could give but a faint 
idea of those of Voltaire;' a man, who said to his 
attending physician, £ Doctor, I will give you half of 
what I am worth, if you will give me six months 
of life,' and who, when the doctor said, ' Sir, you 

1 Note. — It may be stated that Porphyry seems to have been ignorant 
of the fact that the Jews took the most religious care of the Scriptures, 
and also of the further fact that the Old Testament, including the book 
of Daniel, was translated into the Greek in the second century before the 
birth of Christ. Thus the argument of Porphyry becomes a convincing 
proof of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel. 



112 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



cannot live six weeks,' shrieked, ' Then I shall go to 
hell, and you will go with me ! ' and soon after ex- 
pired ; — such a man does not add much weight to 
his own objection. If a man does not feel the force 
of his own argument, others can scarcely be ex- 
pected to give it much importance ; and it is but 
too plain that Voltaire was not an honest skeptic, 
but a mocker, a jeerer, a sneerer, who, seldom him- 
self in earnest, invented any objection which would 
serve his purpose. Yet, inasmuch as an objection 
may be entitled to weight independent of its author, 
we shall briefly examine as to the date of this 
prophecy." 

" If this charge of fraud could for a moment be 
separated from religion, and looked at with calm, 
cool judgment, without any bias of prejudice, its in- 
herent absurdity would be very plain. To sup- 
pose this prophecy to be written after the event is 
to suppose a deliberate imposture of gigantic pro- 
portions, palmed off on credulous dupes in the sa- 
cred name of religion ; a compound of hypocrisy, for- 
gery and perjury, such as would disgrace even a 
monster like Nero. Think of it ! A man in league 
with two others, like himself, lays a plot to prop 
up the claims of a mere pretender, by secretly pre- 
paring a description of an event already past : and 
ihen by a series of lies, inducing men to accept it 
as a genuine prophecy! Could men who could 



THE GOSPEL AUTHENTIC. II3 

do that have written the Gospels? By confession 
even of the enemies of the religion of Christ, these 
records abound in the loftiest moral teaching, and 
the most sublime conceptions of God and duty. 
There must be some consistency between a man and 
his work ; and the production of these gospel narra- 
tives by such abandoned liars is inconceivable. To 
believe this requires more credulity than to accept 
the Christian religion with scarce a hearing of its 
claims. The supposition of intentional imposture in 
the production of the Gospels must be abandoned 
as untenable; on its face it contradicts great es- 
tablished laws of human nature ; and it supposes the 
whole body of believers to be imposed upon." 

As already noted, the Gospels were written, com- 
paratively speaking, only a few years after the 
death of our Lord, Matthew, according to the 
most careful and scholarly Bible students, gave his 
record not later than seven years after the cruci- 
fixion, and he gives the fullest and most complete 
record of this wonderful prophecy. Other details 
are, however, added by Mark and Luke, whose 
writings appeared A. D. 58-68. The three evangel- 
ists who give a record of the doom awaiting Jeru- 
salem all wrote and probably died before the events 
took place. John wrote near the close of the cen- 
tury and makes no reference to the prophecy, for 
the very good reason that it had been literally ful- 



114 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

filled by the destruction of the city at least twenty- 
five years before he wrote the Gospel bearing his 
name. If he had mentioned the prophecy, the ob- 
jections of Porphyry and Voltaire might have had 
some force so far as his record was concerned. 
May he not have omitted mention of it on this very 
ground? The record is clear. By the unanimous 
consent of antiquity the prophecy was recorded at 
least thirty years before the events predicted took 
place. 

But there are other evidences as strong as, if not 
stronger than, those already given to show that the 
prophecy preceded the events foretold. Copies of 
the Gospels must have multiplied rapidly and been 
spread abroad over the country. The disciples 
went everywhere preaching and teaching the reli- 
gion of Jesus. They had, at a very early date, the 
Gospel of Matthew in their hands. The record 
was short and copies could be made with ease, and 
with their zeal and earnestness they would distrib- 
ute large numbers of the work. Any attempt at 
deceit would have been instantly detected and made 
use of by their powerful and crafty foes against 
the new faith they were propagating. They were 
surrounded with, and met on every hand by, de- 
termined enemies. Every inch of ground was con- 
tested by men who were fighting for the religion 
of their fathers, dating back to Abraham. Every 



THE *TESTIMONY OF JOSEPHUS. 1 15 

possible argument was brought against them, and 
for centuries the hottest hostility prevailed and 
even persecution came to the aid of the enemies ar- 
rayed against the Gospel. The souls of the follow- 
ers of Jesus were tried by fire, but through all the 
charges they were called upon to meet, that of fraud 
was never brought against them. The writers of 
the first centuries never challenged the authenticity 
and genuineness of the Gospel, or of the prophecy. 
There cannot be the least shadow of a doubt that 
if any attempt had been made to palm off history 
for prophecy, it would at once have been detected 
and used as an irresistible weapon against .Chris- 
tianity. 

The hand of God is not only shown in the proph- 
ecy, but also in the history which records its ful- 
fillment. " The main account of the destruction of 
Jerusalem, if it had been purposely written to con- 
firm the predictions of Christ, could not have been 
more exactly correspondent." God raised up Jose- 
phus, the great Jewish scholar, historian and gen- 
eral, to write the record. He fought against the 
Romans in Galilee, holding out forty-seven days 
against Vespasian, and was taken prisoner in A. D. 
67. He was an eyewitness to* the horrors of the 
siege of the city, being with Titus and noting the 
events which he afterwards describes. After the 
destruction was complete he went with the victori- 



n6 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



ous general to Rome, where he wrote, his annals, 
and because/ of their accuracy the emperor gave 
them his approval and requested their publication. 
Had the history been written by a Christian author 
the charge would doubtless have been made that 
it was colored to fit the prophecy, but no such 
charge can be made against Josephus, who lived 
and died a Pharisee of the straitest sect. No one 
will venture to accuse the Jewish author of par- 
tiality for the Nazarene or his prophecies. If any 
charge is to be made, it must be that he shows his 
prejudice against Christ and Christianity by the 
very slight reference he makes to them. So God 
chose an enemy of the Christian religion to give us, 
in all its details, the history of the fulfillment of 
one of the most wonderful and minutest prophecies 
in the Bible. Josephus makes no reference to the 
predictions. He makes a record of their fulfillment, 
as a reliable historian, not thinking that he was 
an instrument in the hands of God to bear witness 
before all the world of the prophetic character of 
Jesus Christ. 

Aside from Josephus we must depend upon the 
pagan writers for other accounts of the destruction 
of Jerusalem. These are brief and fragmentary. 
Tacitus, the Roman writer, gives some account of 
the wars in Palestine and the destruction of Jeru- 
salem. Suetonius, Philostratus and Dion Cassius, 



PROPHECIES CONCERNING JERUSALEM. II? 

all pagan writers, relate not a few of the transac- 
tions connected with the fulfillment of the proph- 
ecy. In modern times Gibbon, the English histo- 
rian, although a skeptic, was compelled to record 
the facts which prove that Christ was a great 
prophet. .So in the mouth of His enemies is the 
truth declared that Jesus of Nazareth filled the 
prophetical office. 

Harmonizing the accounts 'given by the first 
three evangelists of the prophecy, we find in them 
no less than twenty-five distinct predictions, while 
particular details number many more. Some of 
these are yet to be fulfilled, but most of them find 
their full completion in the ruin of Jerusalem and 
the final overthrow of the Jews as a nation. At 
best space allows only a very brief view of each of 
these predictions. 

Matthew prefaces the prophecy by giving the 
words of Jesus spoken to His disciples when they 
called His attention to the buildings of the temple, 
and these words give us the first prediction : 
" There shall not one stone be left on another that 
shall not be thrown down." When the temple was 
destroyed by the Roman soldiers, the very foun- 
dations were razed, and not a single stone was left 
on another. So complete was the destruction that 
no one has been able to this day to determine the 
exact foundation of the structure. 



n8 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



Second. False Christs were to arise. Third. 
Many were to be deceived. These predictions were 
literally fulfilled. There arose one Simon Magus 
who boasted that he was some great one and de- 
ceived a number of the people. Dositheus, the 
Samaritan, pretended that he was the lawgiver 
prophesied by Moses. Theudas promised that he 
parted the waters of the Jordan as Elijah had done, 
and by " such speeches deceived many," so says 
Josephus. The country was filled with impostors 
who deceived great numbers of the people and led 
many into the wilderness. 1 Many of them perished, 
and in one of the tumults, which were of frequent 
occurrence, the soldiers took two hundred prisoners 
and slew twice as many more. 

Fourth. " There shall be wars and rumors of 
wars." When Christ made this prediction the Jews 
and all the nations around and about them were 
at peace. Soon after this the Romans attempted to 
set up a statue of Caligula in the temple, which 
the Jews resisted ; but even then the leaders among 
them did not believe that war was imminent. But 
Josephus says, " The country was soon filled with 
violence ; disorders prevailed in Alexandria, Caesa- 
rea, Damascus, Tyre, Ptolemais and all Syria." 
The Jews rebelled against Rome and in two years 
four Roman emperors — Nero, Galba, Otho and 

1 Josephus, book 20, chap. 5, sec. 1. 



WAR, FAMINE, EARTHQUAKES. I IO, 

Vitellius — suffered death. Twenty thousand Jews 
were put to death at Csesarea, fifty thousand at 
Damascus, and ten thousand at Alexandria. Na- 
tion rose against nation and there was terrible 
slaughter and bloodshed in all the land. 

Fifth. " And there shall be famines and pesti- 
lence." These twin evils often follow in the wake 
of great wars, and especially was this true in an- 
cient times. The destruction of life and property 
brought want and famine, and then came the pesti- 
lence. Prior to the fall of Jerusalem a famine of 
several years' duration prevailed in Judea, and it 
is recorded that there was a sore famine in Italy, 
and that pestilence followed these. 

Sixth. " And there shall be earthquakes in di- 
vers places." In the reign of Claudius earthquakes 
of unusual severity occurred at Rome, at Apamea 
and in Crete. In Nero's time there was an earth- 
quake in the Campania, and another in Asia Minor 
in which Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colosse were 
overthrown. There is also a record of an extra- 
ordinary earthquake in Judea. These all occurred 
after the death of Christ and before the fall of Je- 
rusalem. " The constitution of nature," says Jo- 
sephus, " was confounded for the destruction of 
men, and one might easily conjecture that no com- 
mon calamities portended." 1 

1 Josephus, book 4, chap. 4. 



/ 



120 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Seventh. " And fearful sights and great signs 
shall there be from heaven." Both Josephus and 
Tacitus agree in relating supernatural events which 
occurred at the time predicted. " A light in heaven 
in the shape of a sword stood over the city of Je- 
rusalem, a great comet appeared, the heavy eastern 
gate of the city, which required a number of men 
to move, opened of- its -own accord, a light shone 
around the altar, and a great earthquake occurred 
and a supernatural voice was heard at Pentecost." 
" At Rome," says Tacitus, " fire fell from the clouds 
on the temples, a loud voice was heard proclaiming 
the removal of gods from the temples, and a sound 
as of a departing host was heard." Some may 
doubt that these sounds were supernatural ; be that 
as it may, both the Roman and Jewish historian 
considered them miraculous. God's hand was in 
the prophecy ; think it not strange then if His power 
was also manifest in its fulfillment. 

Eighth and ninth. The great persecution of the 
church. Before Jerusalem fell into the hands of the 
Romans the disciples of Jesus suffered great perse- 
cution. They were cast into prison and many of 
them were put to death. They were hated by all 
nations for His name's sake. Peter, Simon, and 
Jude were crucified. 1 Paul was beheaded ; Mat- 

1 Cave's " Lives of the Apostles." 



PERSECUTION, FALSE BRETHREN. 121 

thew, Thomas, James, Matthias, Mark and Luke 
suffered martyrdom in various ways in different 
countries. They suffered the most cruel tortures. 
The monster Nero, in order to screen himself from 
guilt, accused the Christians of setting Rome on 
fire, and inflicted upon them unspeakable cruelties. 
They were brought before kings and rulers, so that 
in every detail the words of Jesus were fulfilled. 

Tenth. Many shall be offended and shall betray 
one another, and the love of many shall wax cold. 
Paul often complained of false brethren, and when 
he stood the first time before Nero he was forsaken 
by all. Tacitus testifies that many of the Chris- 
tians were convicted on the testimony of others 
who had been previously accused. These, proving 
unfaithful, betrayed their brethren, and by this 
means a great multitude was convicted. 

Eleventh. The Gospel was to be preached to all 
nations. What a work to be done and but forty 
years for its accomplishment. The rapid spread of 
the Christian religion is not the least of the mira- 
cles connected with it. After the ascension of 
Christ a little band of not more than one hundred 
and twenty met in an upper room at Jerusalem. 
It was the nucleus of the Christian world. The 
leaders were a few unlettered fishermen of Galilee, 
afterwards assisted by a tentmaker of Tarsus. And 
yet before the forty years had expired a wonderful 



I 



122 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

work had been accomplished. Peter going ease 
ward to the dispersed tribes of Israel, Paul west- 
ward to the Gentiles, and others journeying north 
and south, the words of the Lord were literally ful- 
filled. Before Jerusalem was destroyed epistles 
had been written to Christians at Rome, Corinth, 
Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica, and in 
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. The 
preaching of the Gospel had been heard in Asia, 
Greece, Italy, Scythia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Parthia, 
Spain, Great Britain, and possibly India. Tacitus 
says the religion of Jesus had spread all through 
the Roman empire and that its adherents numbered 
so many that great multitudes were arrested and 
suffered martyrdom. So the prophetic words of 
our Lord were fulfilled and the day of doom had 
come upon the city. 

Twelfth to fourteenth. Jerusalem was to be en- 
compassed with armies and an embankment was 
to be cast up around her. The siege of Jerusalem 
was at first conducted by Cestius' Gallus, the Ro- 
man general, who compassed the city round about 
with his armies. According to Josephus, great con- 
sternation prevailed among the inhabitants of the 
city, and the chief men were ready to open the gates 
to the Romans, but for some unaccountable reason 
Gallus withdrew his armies and the way was open 
for as many as would to escape from the fated city. 



JERUSALEM ENCOMPASSED. 123 

The Christians, taking advantage of this oppor- 
tunity, made their escape, fleeing to the mountains 
and to the city of Pella. It is a matter of record 
that not a single Christian was killed in the siege, 
and thus were the words of the Master fulfilled, 
" Not a hair of your heads shall perish." 1 

But the respite was short. Vespasian came 
against the city and completely encompassed it. A 
trench was digged and an embankment was thrown 
up. Never before had this means of assault been 
resorted to. The city, surrounded by hills and val- 
leys east, south and west, made it seem useless to 
resort to trenches. " Yet Titus, against the coun- 
sel of his chief men, actually built a wall and a 
trench five miles in circumference around the 
doomed capital; and the Jewish historian describes 
the exact circuit." 2 Christ uttered the prophetic 
words, and behold in history their full completion. 

Fifteenth. The abomination spoken of by Daniel 
the prophet. What the " abomination of desolation 
standing in the holy place " means, is not clear. 
It may refer to the desolating Gentile army with its 
idolatrous standards, or, as some think, to the 
statue set up in the holy place by Hadrian. What- 
ever it may mean, there is no doubt that it was 
seen and -understood by the Jews, and added to 
their rage and humiliation. 

1 Luke 21 : 18. 2 Eusebius, book 3, chap. 5. 



124 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Sixteenth. As the lightning flashes from the east 
to the west, so was the destruction of the city to 
come. Contrary to all expectation, the Romans ap- 
proached the city from the east, coming over Olivet 
and encamping on Mount Scopus. A careful study 
of the surrounding country would indicate that the 
most feasible point of attack would be from the 
north and west, and the most difficult from the east 
and south. But the bolts of fire burst from the 
clouds of war from the summit of Scopus and the 
Mount of Olives. 

Seventeenth. " For wheresoever the carcass is, 
there will the eagles be gathered together." It is 
a well-known fact that the eagle was the standard 
of the Roman army, the symbol of Roman power. 
When her armies gathered around the doomed city, 
the silver eagles flashed in the sunlight above every 
waving banner borne by the legions of the Gentile 
army ; fitting emblem of " strength, swiftness, fe- 
rocity," and like the vultures they swooped down 
upon the city, which because of sin and wickedness 
had become a festering carcass in the sight of God. 1 

Eighteenth. " For there shall be great tribula- 
tion, such as was not since the beginning of the 
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.' 1 This 
is one of the strongest predictions in the series, 
but not stronger than the facts of its fulfillment. 

1 " Many Infallible Proofs," p. 63. 



SUFFERING IN JERUSALEM. 125 

In point of time this was not the last of the pre- 
dictions, but for want of space we can but glance 
at the rest and conclude with this. Following it 
came the desolation of the city, the Jews falling 
by the edge of the sword, being sold into captiv- 
ity, the razing of the foundations of Jerusalem, 
plowing it as a field and leveling its walls, the city 
to be trodden under foot by the Gentiles ; and all 
these things were to come to pass in the lifetime 
of some of those who were then living. In every 
particular down to the very minutest details the 
words of this prophecy were fulfilled. 

The cup of the wickedness of the city of Jerusalem 
was full to overflowing, and then came " the days 
of vengeance, that all things which are written may 
be fulfilled." The burden of prophetic vision from 
Moses to Christ was at last to be completed in the 
total destruction of the city that knew not the day 
of her visitation. Hear again the record of the Jew- 
ish historian : " No other city suffered such mis- 
eries, nor was ever a generation more fruitful in 
wickedness from the beginning of the world. It 
appears that the misfortunes of all men from the 
beginning of the world, if compared with those of 
the Jews, are not so considerable. The multitude 
who perished exceeded all the destructions that 
man ever brought on the world." God punishes 
nations in this world, individuals in the next. The 



126 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



sore punishment which fell upon Jerusalem was 
only in proportion to her sin and wickedness. 

The particulars of the siege are given by Jose- 
phus in all their horrible details, and form an ac- 
count of the tribulation and suffering which he fre- 
quently says is unequaled in the history of the 
world. Instead of giving the details recorded by 
the Jewish historian, we adapt the words of Keith 
taken from the same source. No general descrip- 
tion can give a just idea of the most terrible ca- 
lamities that any nation ever suffered. The Jews 
had assembled in their city from all the surrounding 
country, to keep the feast of unleavened bread. It 
was crowded with inhabitants, when they were all 
imprisoned within its walls by the Romans. They 
had assembled to observe the passover which com- 
memorated their deliverance from Egypt. It was 
now to be the last signal of their destruction. 

Before the Romans appeared without, the fiercest 
dissensions prevailed within ; the blood of thou- 
sands was shed by their brethren; they destroyed 
and burned in their frenzy their common provision 
for their siege ; they were destitute of any regular 
government, and divided into three factions. On the 
extirpation of one of these, each of the others con- 
tended for the mastery. The most ferocious and 
frantic, the robbers or zealots, as they are indis- 
criminately called, prevailed at last. They entered 



DISSENSIONS AND SUFFERING IN JERUSALEM. I2J 

the temple, under the pretense of offering sacrifices, 
and carried concealed weapons for the purpose of 
assassination. They slew the priests at the very- 
altar; and their blood, instead of that of the vic- 
tims for sacrifice, flowed around it. They after- 
wards rejected all terms of peace with the enemy; 
none were suffered to escape from the city after 
its final investment ; every house was entered, every 
article of subsistence was pillaged, and the most 
wanton barbarities were committed. Nothing 
could restrain their fury; wherever there was the 
appearance or scent of food, the human blood- 
hounds tracked it out ; and though a general famine 
raged around, though they were ever trampling 
on the dead, and though the habitations of the liv- 
ing were converted into charnel houses, nothing 
could intimidate, or appall, or satisfy, or shock 
them, till Mary, the daughter of Eleazar, a lady 
once rich and noble, displayed to them and offered 
to them all her remaining food, the scent of which 
had attracted them in their search, — the bitterest 
morsel that ever mother or mortal tasted, — the rem- 
nant of her half-eaten suckling child. 

Sixty thousand Roman soldiers unremittingly be- 
sieged them, and hemmed them in on every side; 
they brought down their high and fenced wall to 
the ground ; they slaughtered the slaughterers, they 
spared not the people ; they burned the temple, in 



128 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

defiance of the commands, the threats and resist- 
ance of their general. With it the last hope of the 
Jews was extinguished. They raised, at the sight, 
a universal but an expiring groan of sorrow and 
despair. Ten thousand were there slain and six 
thousand were enveloped in the flames. The whole 
city, full of the famished and dying, and of the mur- 
dered dead, presented no picture but that of despair, 
no scene but of horror. The aqueducts and the 
sewers were crowded as the last refuge of the hope- 
less. Two thousand were found dead there, and 
many were dragged thence and slain. The Roman 
soldiers put all to death indiscriminately and ceased 
not till they became faint and weary and over- 
powered with the work of destruction. But they 
only sheathed the sword to apply the torch. They 
set fire to the city in various places. The flames 
spread everywhere, and were checked but for a mo- 
ment by the red streamlets in every street. Jeru- 
salem became heaps. Within the circuit of a few 
miles, in the space of five months, — foes and famine, 
pillage and pestilence within, a triple wall around, 
and besieged every moment without, — eleven hun- 
dred thousand human beings perished. Was there 
ever such a concentrated mass of human misery? 
Could any prophecy be more faithfully and awfully 
fulfilled? 



CITY AND TEMPLE RAZED. 120, 

The prospect of His own crucifixion, when Jesus 
was on His way to Calvary, was not more clearly 
before Him, and seemed to affect Him less than the 
fate of Jerusalem. How full of tenderness and 
fraught with truth was the sympathetic response 
of the condoling sufferer to the wailings and lam- 
entations of the women who followed Him, when 
He turned unto them and beheld the city, which 
some of them might yet live to see wrapt in flames 
and drenched in blood, and said, " Daughters of 
Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for your- 
selves and for your children." 

More minute details might be given at length, but 
surely this is enough. It may yet be added that 
Titus commanded the whole city and temple to 
be razed from the foundation. The soldiers were 
not then disobedient to their general. Avarice 
combined with duty and with resentment : the altar, 
the temple, the walls of the city, were overthrown 
from the base, in search of the treasures which the 
Jews, beset on every hand by plunderers, had con- 
cealed and buried during the siege. Three towers 
and the remnant of a wall alone stood, the monu- 
ment and memorial of Jerusalem ; and the city was 
afterwards plowed over by Terentius Rufus. In 
the siege, and in the previous and subsequent de- 
struction of the cities and villages of Judea, accord- 
ing to the specified enumeration of Josephus, about 



130 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



one million three hundred thousand suffered death. 
Ninety-seven thousand were led into captivity. 
They were sold for -slaves, and were so despised 
and disesteemed that many remained unpurchased. 
And their conquerors were so prodigal of their 
lives, that in honor of the birthday of Domitian, two 
thousand five hundred of them were placed, in sav- 
age sport, to contend with wild beasts, and other- 
wise to be put to death. 



CHAPTER NINE. 



Babylon the Great City. 

Is not this great Babylon that I have buildedf — Dan. 4: 30. 

Babylon was an old city when Nineveh was 
founded. It was one of the earliest and most im- 
portant cities of the race which founded Ur of the 
Chaldees. Cuneiform inscriptions recently discov- 
ered seem to point to it as the Babel of the Bible ; 
and the fact that the ruins of a huge tower are lo- 
cated here, known as the tower of Babel, indicates 
this as the place of the confusion of tongues. Baby- 
lon was " the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty 
of the Chaldeans' excellency." Its fame went 
abroad among all the nations of the earth. Its 
great walls, its magnificent palaces, its wonderful 
temples, its hanging gardens, its hundred brazen 
gates, its embankments which restrained the Eu- 
phrates in its flow through the city, its great arti- 
ficial lake, and the greatness of its power were the 
wonders of the world. When Nineveh was over- 
thrown by Nabopolassar, the traitor general, he at 
once established his capital at Babylon. He was 
succeeded by his son Nebuchadnezzar, a brilliant 
general and an able statesman. Inheriting a king- 
dom not larger than the State of Illinois, he extend- 
ed its limits over all the known world. His power 

131 



132 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

was autocratic, and the prophet Jeremiah aptly 
named him " the hammer of the whole earth." His 
supreme ambition was to make of Babylon, what 
in later years Napoleon strove to make of Paris, 
the one unsurpassable city of the whole world ; and 
he succeeded in carrying out his purpose. With 
unbounded wealth in his hands, for he drained the 
treasures of all the richest nations into his own, 
and with an unlimited number of men, taken cap- 
tive in war, he succeeded in making, in his own 
words, this " great Babylon, built by the might of 
his power and for the glory of his majesty, the lady 
of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldees' excellency, 
the joy of the earth." But great as was this mis- 
tress of the whole world, when it was at the height 
of its power, a century and a half before an enemy 
set foot within its great walls, the prophets of Israel 
foretold its doom and prophesied the utter destruc- 
tion and complete desolation of the mighty and un- 
conqucred city. Centuries passed away, and " the 
lady of kingdoms " was gradually brought to the 
dust and to utter desolation. The traveler who to- 
day walks over its heaps and mounds, startling the 
wild beast in its lair and the owl in its gloom, and 
describes its ruin, writes only of fulfilled prophecy. 

Concentrated in this one great city were to be 
found the mightiest works of mortals, and when 
we consider them for a moment, its utter destruc- 



THE DEFENSES OF BABYLON. 1 33 

tion seems all the more strange and singular. For 
years the historical accounts of Babylon, which 
came down to us from the ancient writers, notably 
Herodotus and Ctesias, both of whom were eye- 
witnesses to what they described, were accepted 
by scholars as being largely imaginary descriptions 
of the city ; but recent discoveries have induced 
a belief that the historians related only the facts, 
and the description given by Herodotus is now 
generally accepted as being in the main correct. 
The conflicting statements made by travelers may 
be easily reconciled by supposing that they refer 
to different periods in the history of the city. Ac- 
cording to this account the city was built four- 
square, and was surrounded by a wall, each side 
of which was fifteen miles long, three hundred feet 
high and seventy-five feet wide at the top, where a 
four-horse chariot could easily turn around and 
where half a score of war chariots might be driven 
abreast a distance of sixty miles before reaching 
the starting point. The wall was protected by par- 
apets, and two hundred and fifty immense towers 
were built up with it. 

Outside the wall was a moat or canal, deep and 
wide, kept constantly filled with water. It afford- 
ed protection to the city from its enemies. The 
clay dug from the moat was molded into bricks and, 
laid in bitumen, formed the great wall of Babylon, 



134 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

which was pierced by a hundred gateways all closed 
with massive brass gates with brazen lintels and 
huge bronze posts built in the wall. 

The space inclosed within the walls measured 
about two hundred square miles in area, or about 
one hundred and twenty-eight thousand acres. The 
Euphrates bisected the city diagonally, from the 
northwest to the southeast. In its passage, the 
river was forced between massive walls, which were 
equal in thickness to the outer walls, and its bed 
was lined with glazed brick. In order to accom- 
plish this great work Nebuchadnezzar had an im- 
mense reservoir, or inland lake, dug, which occu- 
pied forty square miles west of Borsippa, and this 
received the waters of the stream, while its chan- 
nel, nearly twenty-three miles in length, was walled 
and lined by his army of workmen. Some of the 
streets were carried over the river by bridges, while 
others ran in tunnels beneath its bed. On the east 
side of the Euphrates stood the palace of the king, 
named by its pleasure-loving owner, " The Admi- 
ration of Mankind." Two of its ponderous gates 
of brass were so heavy that they could only be 
opened and closed by the use of strong machinery. 
In the palace was brought together all the splendor 
that unlimited wealth could procure. Here was 
a room plated with silver, anothei with bur- 
nished gold, another was studded with rubies, and 



SPLENDOR OF BABYLON. I35 

still another with sapphires, and all the palace 
shone in magnificent splendor. It was built on the 
largest lines of architecture and finished with the 
finest art of the jeweler. Near by stood the great 
temple of the god Belus, a half mile in circumfer- 
ence and a furlong in height, and here were the 
wonderful hanging gardens, built by the king to 
solace his Median wife who longed for the hills of 
her native land. "Enormous arches of masonry 
were piled one upon another, supporting hills of 
earth, whose wild flowers nestled amid the roots of 
forest trees, and artificial crags, down which dashed 
brooks kept full from the Euphrates by water 
screws, some centuries before they were invented 
by Archimedes." 

Not only was Babylon the most powerful and the 
most magnificent city in all the earth, but it was 
surrounded by the plains of Chaldea, also known 
as Babylonia, rich and fertile in the production of 
food supplies. The country, watered and enriched 
by the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, formed 
a vast, fertile plain, the richest and most productive 
in all the world. It was irrigated by a system of 
canals which rendered a failure of crops impossible, 
and the rich, inexhaustible soil brought forth every 
year the most abundant harvests. Herodotus is 
authority for the statement that such was the won- 
derful fertility of Chaldea that no one but an eye- 



136 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

witness could realize the rich, exuberant production 
of the land. The soil, he says, produced the finest 
crops of grain in the world, and never less than 
two hundred and sometimes as much as three hun- 
dredfold. This rich and fertile land supplied the 
city with great abundance of food, and Babylon 
seemed secure in its greatness. But the prophets 
of God saw the destruction of the city and the deso- 
lation of the fertile plain and recorded their pre- 
dictions in His Book, and the flight of centuries 
has served to confirm in every particular and detail 
the prophecies. " The judgments of heaven are 
not casual, but sure ; they are not arbitrary, but 
righteous. And they were denounced against the 
Babylonians, and the inhabitants of Chaldea, ex- 
pressly because of their idolatry, tyranny, oppres- 
sion, pride, covetousness, drunkenness, falsehood, 
and other wickedness. So debasing and brutifying 
was their idolatry, — or so much did they render 
the name of religion subservient to their passions, — 
that practices the most abominable, which were uni- 
versal among them, formed the very observance of 
their religious rites, of which even heathen writers 
could not speak but in terms of indignation and 
abhorrence. Though enriched with a prodigality 
of blessings, the glory of God was not regarded 
by the Chaldeans ; and all the glory of man, with 
which the plain of Shinar was covered, has become, 



Nebuchadnezzar's dream. 137 

in consequence as well as in chastisement of pre- 
vailing vices and of continued though diversified 
crimes, the wreck, the ruin, and the utter desola- 
tion which the Word of God foretold should come 
to pass." 

The first intimation of the beginning of the end 
came to king Nebuchadnezzar. In his gorgeous 
palace, surrounded by magnificence unequaled 
even by the splendor that came to the fortunate 
possessor of Aladdin's wonderful lamp, lay the king 
upon his couch. He had reached the pinnacle of 
all earthly power and the very zenith of all earthly 
glory; as he lay musing upon his greatness and the 
work of his genius, he slumbered, and while he slept 
a strange dream came to him. He awoke, but his 
dream, as well as the peace of his mind, was gone. 
His wise men, his astrologers, his magicians and 
sorcerers were called, and the king demanded that 
they should bring back to him his forgotten dream 
and give him the interpretation thereof. And they 
answered, " O king, live forever, tell thy servants 
the dream and we will show the interpretation." 
The answer came from the autocrat whose will was 
law, " The thing is gone from me, make it known 
unto me, or ye shall be cut in pieces." Among the 
many captives the king had taken was Daniel, a 
Hebrew youth ; the Spirit of the God of Israel was 
upon him and he revealed the dream to the king, 



138 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



and gave him the interpretation thereof in these 
words : " They shall drive thee from men, and thy 
dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and 
they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they 
shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven 
times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the 
Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giv- 
eth it to whomsoever He will." 1 

A strange dream and a stranger interpretation! 
How were the words of the prophet Daniel to be 
fulfilled? Why should a great and powerful king 
like Nebuchadnezzar be thus treated by his people? 
Here at last the infidel and Bible critic concluded 
that they had found a weak point ; but they had 
not taken into account the buried records of the 
past which were to be brought to light by the spade 
and pick of the excavator. An old tablet has been 
recovered from the ruins of Babylon, inscribed by 
the king's secretary, and signed by the sovereign 
himself, which contains a record of the remarkable 
malady that came upon him. The tablet is now in 
the British Museum. Rawlinson's translation is as 
follows : " For four years the seat of my kingdom 
did not rejoice my heart. In all my dominions I 
did not build a high place of power. The precious 
treasures of my kingdom I did not lay up. In 
Babylon, buildings for myself and the honor of my 

1 Dan 4: 25. 



Nebuchadnezzar's malady. 139 

kingdom I did not lay out. In the worship of 
Merodach, my Lord, the joy of my heart, in Baby- 
lon the city of his sovereignty, and the seat of his 
empire, I did not sing his praises. I did not fur- 
nish his altars with victims, nor did I clear his ca- 
nals." Rawlinson adds, " We can scarcely imagine 
anything that would account for this record but 
some extraordinary malady as that recorded by 
Daniel." And thus again is the truth of God's 
Book verified and the infidel and skeptic put to 
shame. Even medical science aids the Bible. The 
malady which attacked Nebuchadnezzar is known 
as lycanthropy, a mental aberration which induces 
the patient to imagine himself to be an animal of 
some kind, and for the time being he assumes the 
habits of the animal he fancies himself to be. The 
king's madness led him to believe that he was an 
ox, and like an ox he ate grass, and his locks were 
wet with the dew of heaven until he was convinced 
that the Most High ruleth among the kingdoms of 
men. It is a fact no less curious than interesting 
that in the valley of the Euphrates, around and 
about the ruins of Babylon, there is a grass which 
is succulent, has a mild, peppery taste, is very nu- 
tritious, is eaten by the natives, and is called Ne- 
buchadnezzar grass. 

The reign of Nebuchadnezzar continued for for- 
ty-three years, and dying he left Babylon the me- 



I40 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

tropolis of the world. Thither Egypt sent for sun- 
dials and water clocks. Thence the ladies of the 
Orient received the fashions, as Christendom re- 
ceives the fashions from Paris to-day. From Baby- 
lon Tyre took the weights and measures which 
regulated all its vast commerce. From Babylon 
the Greeks received the tables on which their sci- 
ence was based, and Lydia the lutes on which she 
learned to excel her master. To Babylon Egypt 
sent her finest gold and choicest ivory, India her 
largest pearls, Tyre her most gorgeous dyes, Ara- 
bia her choicest spices, Media her agates and emer- 
alds, which nowhere else could be so finely cut and 
polished. Thither Greece sent her most beautiful 
slaves, for in Babylon a dancing girl might be sold 
for the price of a year's pay to a thousand soldiers. 
The great Babylonian banking house of the Egibi, 
whose checks and receipts, in clay, still exist in great 
numbers, occupied for five generations at Babylon the 
place filled in Europe by the Rothschilds. 1 

But the doom of the city was sealed and its 
destruction came as a quick thunderbolt from an 
overhanging cloud. Its kings and nobles reveled 
in sin and vice and drank from golden cups, spark- 
ling with diamonds, their own undoing and death. 
Vice, no longer regarded as a monster, was wor- 
shiped as a god. " The debaucheries into which 

1 " Ancient Cities ef the Bible," pp. 50, 51. 



WICKEDNESS OF BABYLON. I4I 

the people sank with fearful rapidity may not be 
described. A law was enforced, probably the most 
infamous known to the annals of our race, which 
was designed, by pandering to the grossest pas- 
sions of our nature, to attract strangers to Baby- 
lon by making it a paradise, or rather a stew of 
sensuality. That nameless horror was conspicuous 
among the causes of her ruin." 1 The cup of her 
iniquity was full, and the wrath of God fell upon 
the wicked city as it had fallen upon Sodom and 
Gomorrah .a thousand years before. 

Long before the end came, the Holy Ghost moved 
upon the prophets of Israel to foretell and make a 
record of the fate that the future held in store for 
the city of Babylon, and this record we now call 
attention to : " Thus saith the Lord to His anoint- 
ed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to 
subdue nations before him ; and I will loose the 
loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved 
gates ; and the gates shall not be shut ; I will go 
before thee, and make the crooked places straight: 
I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut 
in sunder the bars of iron : and I will give thee the 
treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret 
places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord 
which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. 
For Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel Mine elect, 

1 " Ancient Cities," pp. 50, 51. 



142 THE ETERXAL VERITIES. 

I have even called thee by thy name : I have sur- 
named thee, though thou hast not known Me." 1 

" Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, that 
He hath taken against Babylon, and His purposes 
that He hath purposed against the land of the Chal- 
deans ; surely the least of the flock shall draw them 
out ; surely He shall make their habitations desolate 
with them." 2 "I will send into Babylon fanners, 
that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for 
in the day of trouble they shall be against her 
round about. Against him that bendeth let the 
archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth 
himself up in his brigantine : and spare ye not her 
young men ; destroy ye utterly all her host. Thus 
the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, 
and they that are thrust through in her streets. . . 
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed : howl for 
her ; take balm for her pain, if so she may be healed : 
forsake her, and let us go every one into his own 
country; for her judgment reaches unto heaven, 
and is lifted up even to the skies. . . The Lord 
hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; 
for his device is against Babylon to destroy it. . . 
O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant 
in treasure, thine end is come, and the measure of 
thy covetousness. The Lord of hosts hath sworn 

ilsa. 45= 1-4- 2 J er - =0: 45- 



PROPHECY AGAINST BABYLON. 143 

by Himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, 
as with caterpillars, and they shall lift up a shout 
against thee. Behold, I am against thee, O destroying 
mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the 
earth; and I will stretch out My hand upon thee, and 
roll thee down from the rocks, and I will make thee 
a burnt mountain. Set up the standard in the land, 
blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the 
nations against her; call together against her the 
kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz ; prepare 
against her the nations, with" the kings of the 
Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers there- 
of, and all the land of his dominion. And the land 
shall tremble and sorrow ; for every purpose of the 
Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make 
the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhab- 
itant. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne 
to fight, they have remained in their holds ; their 
might hath failed ; they became as women ; they 
have burnt her dwelling places ; her bars are bro- 
ken. One post shall run to meet another, and one 
messenger to meet another, to show the king of 
Babylon that his city is taken at one end, and that 
the passages are stopped. Thus saith the Lord of 
hosts, the God of Israel, The daughter of Babylon 
is like a threshing floor : it is time to thresh her ; yet 
a little time and her harvest shall come. I will dry 



144 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



up her sea, and make her springs dry. And Baby- 
lon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for drag- 
ons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an 
inhabitant. In their heat I will make their feasts, 
that they may sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake. 
How is the praise of the whole earth surprised! 
How is Babylon become an astonishment among 
the nations ! The sea is come up upon Babylon : 
she is covered with the multitude of the waves 
thereof. Her cities are a desolation, a dry land 
and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, 
neither doth any son of man pass thereby. And I 
will punish Bel in Babylon ; and I will bring forth 
out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed 
up : and the nations shall not flow together any 
more unto him ; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. 
A rumor shall come one year, and after that in an- 
other year shall come a rumor, and violence in the 
land, ruler against ruler. Therefore, behold, the 
days come that I will do judgment upon the graven 
images of Babylon ; and her whole land shall be 
confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst 
of her. . . And I will make drunk her princes, 
and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and 
her mighty men : and they shall sleep a perpetual 
sleep, and not wake, saith the King whose name is 
the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, 
The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, 



CYRUS NOT A MONOTHEIST. 145 

and her high gates shall be burnt with fire; and the 
people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, 
and they shall be weary. And it shall be, when 
thou hast made an end of reading this book, that 
thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the 
midst of the Euphrates: and thou shalt say, Thus 
shall Babylon sink and shall not rise from the evil 
that I will bring upon her." 1 

In these prophecies are given abundant particu- . 
lars of the judgments that were to fall upon Baby- 
lon. The prophet not only foretold the overthrow 
of the city, but he even named the king who was 
to accomplish the great work, and he did this years 
before Cyrus was born. He was anointed by the 
Lord to conquer Babylon and allow the Jews to 
return to Palestine. For a long time the theory 
was held that Cyrus believed in one supreme God 
and that this community of belief with the Jews led 
him to favor them and to permit them to return 
to their own country. This was held to weaken 
the statement made in the Bible that Cyrus did 
not know God. The discovery in the ruins of Baby- 
lon of a terra cotta cylinder, inscribed by order of 
Cyrus, and a tablet describing the conquest of 
Babylonia, shows that the king was not a raono- 
theist, but a believer in Bel, or Baal, Merodach, 
Nebo, and other gods of the Babylonians. The 

J Jer. 51: 2, 4, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14. 25, 27-33, 36, 37, 39, 41-44, 46, 47, 
57, 58, 63, 64. 



146 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



inscriptions confirm in a remarkable manner the 
words spoken by Isaiah concerning Cyrus : " / 
have even named thee, I have surnamed thee, 
though thou hast not known Me." The cylinder 
and tablet also show that Cyrus was not a Persian 
king, but an Elamite. Sayce referring to this says : 
" The most startling revelation they make is that he 
(Cyrus) was not a king of Persia at all. Persia 
seems to have been acquired by him after his con- 
quest of Astyages, at some time between the sixth 
and ninth year of Nabonidos. Both he and his' 
ancestors were kings of Anzan or Elam. It is true 
he could trace his descent back to a member of the 
royal Persian clan, Teispes, who appears to have 
taken Elam during the troublous period that fol- 
lowed the fall of Assyria, and to have resigned his 
Persian dominions to his son Ariaramnes, the great- 
grandfather of Darius. It must be this conquest 
of Elam which was prophesied by Jeremiah at the 
beginning of Zedekiah's reign, 1 and the result of 
it was to make Cyrus an Elamite in education and 
religion. The empire which he founded was not a 
Persian one ; Darius, the son of Hystaspes, was the 
real founder of that. It was only as the predecessor 
of Darius, and for the sake of intelligibility to the 
readers of a later day, that Cyrus could be called a 
king of Persia as he is in the book of Ezra, where 

1 Jer. 49: 34-39- 



Cylinder of Cyrus. 



PREPARATIONS BY CYRUS. I49 

the original words of his proclamation, ' king of 
Elam,' have been changed into the more familiar and 
intelligible 'king of Persia.' 1 Elsewhere in the Bible, 2 
where the invasion of Babylonia is described, there is 
no mention of Persia, only Elam and Media, that is 
to say, of the ancestral dominions of Cyrus and the 
kingdoms of Ekbatana which he had annexed. 
This is in strict accordance with the revelations 
of the monuments and is a most interesting testi- 
mony to the accuracy of the Old Testament rec- 
ords:" 3 

The preparations made by Cyrus for the occupa- 
tion of Babylon were also predicted. Elam and 
Media were to be united in the great undertaking, 
for the " Lord raised up the spirit of the kings of 
the Medes, for His device is against Babylon to 
destroy it." It was also predicted uiat other na- 
tions should enter the league and place their forces 
under the command of the " Lord's anointed." The 
prophet had said : " Set up the standard in the 
land ; blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare 
the nations against her, call together against her 
the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz. Lo, 
I will raise, and cause to come up against Babylon, 
an assembly of great nations from the north coun- 
try." Keith quoting from Jackson, Grotius, Poole, 
Rollin, Xenophon and other authorities gives a syn- 

1 Ezra i: 2. 2 Isa. 21: 1-10. 

8 " Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments," pp. 144, 145. 



I50 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

opsis of the preparation of Cyrus for taking Baby- 
lon. He subdued the Armenians, who had revolted 
against Media, spared their king, bound them over 
anew to their allegiance, by kindness rather than 
force, and incorporated their army with his own. 
He adopted the Hyrcanians, who had rebelled 
against Babylon, as allies with the Medes and Per- 
sians. He conquered the united forces of the Baby- 
lonians and Lydians, took Sardis, with Croesus and 
all his wealth, spared his life, after he was at the 
stake, restored to him his family and household, re- 
ceived him into the number of his counselors and 
friends, and thus prepared the Lydians, over whom 
he reigned, and who were formerly combined with 
Babylon, for coming up against it. He overthrew also 
the Phrygians and Cappadocians, and added their 
armies in like manner to his accumulating forces. 
And by these successive alliances and conquests, 
by proclaiming liberty to the slaves, by a humane 
policy, consummate skill, a pure and noble disinter- 
estedness, and a boundless generosity, he changed 
within twenty years a confederacy which the king 
of Babylon had raised up against the Medes and 
Persians, whose junction he feared, into a confed- 
eracy even of the same nations against Babylon 
itself ; and thus a standard was set up against Baby- 
lon, kingdoms were summoned, prepared and gath- 
ered together against her ; and an assembly of great 



CAMP OF CYRUS AGAINST BABYLON. 151 

nations from the north, — including Ararat, and 
Minni, or the greater and lesser Armenia, and Ash- 
chenaz, or according to Bochart, Phrygia, — was raised 
up and caused to come up against Babylon. With- 
out their aid, and before they were subjected to 
his authority, he had attempted in vain to conquer 
Babylon ; but when he had prepared and gathered' 
them together, it was taken, though more by artifice 
than by power. 

The accounts of the fall of Babylon given by the 
historians Xenophon and Herodotus tell how Cyrus 
surrounded the city and cast up a trench round 
about, and prepared for the final struggle. It is 
not to be understood that all the predictions of the 
prophets were fulfilled in the capture of the city 
by Cyrus. This was but the beginning of the end. 
While very many of the details of the predictions 
found their completion in Cyrus, others were not 
fulfilled until many years afterward. A day with 
the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand 
years as a day, but whether it be a day or a thou- 
sand years, His judgments are sure and His words 
are true. The armies of Cyrus " camped against 
it round about. They put themselves in array 
against Babylon round about." As the prophet had 
predicted, so the enemies of Babylon came up 
against her and she was entirely surrounded by 
her enemies, But the people of the city gave them- 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



selves but little concern about their enemies. They 
trusted with absolute security in its mountain-like 
walls, its brazen gates, and its great moat encirciing 
it like a river. Within the walls of the city were 
stored ample supplies of provisions for a siege of 
twenty years. Part of the land within the wall was 
used for raising grain, and this, irrigated by the 
Euphrates, produced three abundant crops each 
year. It is to this fact that Jeremiah refers when 
he says: "Cut off the sower from Babylon, and 
him that handleth the sickle in time of harvest." 1 
With abundant stores of food, and with the means 
inside the walls of constantly adding to their sup- 
plies, with impregnable walls which no human 
being could scale, with ponderous brazen gates 
strong enough to defy and resist the combined forc- 
es of Cyrus, with an unfailing water supply from 
the river which flowed through the city, no wonder 
that the king of Babylon, his nobles and his people 
laughed their enemies to scorn and spent their time 
in feasting and reveling. 

The king and his lords, his nobles and his cap- 
tains closed the gates of the city and remained " in 
their holds," giving themselves over to sensuality 
and luxurious living. Feasting and drunkenness 
did their work, " for the hands of the king of Baby- 
lon waxed feeble." Like king, like people, was as 

1 Jer. so: 16. 



BABYLON TAKEN BY CYRUS. • 1 53 

true then as now. Gluttony, drunkenness, de- 
bauchery and sensual indulgence were the rule 
among all classes, and manly strength and courage 
departed from all alike, " their might failed, they 
became as women." Cyrus wisely chose the time 
of a great feast to enter the city. He knew that 
the king and his great men as well as his army 
would be overcome by drunkenness and that many 
of them would sleep, what was to be to them the 
perpetual sleep of death. The prophet had said : 
" And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise 
men, her captains, her rulers, and her mighty men, 
and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, 
saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts." 
Whether Cyrus entered the city by turning the 
Euphrates from its course, as related by Herodotus, 
or whether the gates were opened to him by friends 
within the walls, the end came upon Babylon, as 
predicted by the prophets, and the gates were 
opened. Not a single brick of the great mountain- 
like wall was thrown down, not one of the hundred 
gates of the city was forced open. The gates were 
opened before the " Lord's anointed " and he en- 
tered the city in the night when all the people were 
reveling, many of them sleeping from the effects 
of strong drink and others in a state of imbecility 
from the same cause. Confusion and absolute lack 
of military caution prevailed everywhere. At once 



154 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

the soldiers began an indiscriminate slaughter of 
the revelers. On passing without obstruction or 
hindrance into the city, slaying some, putting others 
to flight, and joining with the revelers as if slaugh- 
ter had been merriment, they hastened by the short- 
est way to the palace, and reached it ere yet the 
messenger had told the king that the city was taken. 
The gates of the palace, which were strongly forti- 
fied, were shut. The guards stationed before them 
were drinking beside a blazing light when the Per- 
sians rushed impetuously upon them. The louder 
and altered clamor, no longer joyous, caught the ear 
of the inmates of the palace, and the bright light 
showed them the work of destruction, without re- 
vealing its cause. And, not aware of the presence 
of an enemy in the midst of Babylon, the king him- 
self, excited by the warlike tumults at the gates, 
commanded those within to examine whence the 
tumult arose ; and according to the same word, by 
which the gates (leading from the river to the city) 
were not shut, the loins of kings were loosed to 
open before Cyrus the two-leaved gates. At the 
sight of the opened gates of the palace of Babylon, 
the eager Persians sprang in. The king of Babylon, 
heard the report of them — anguish took hold of 
him; he and all who were about him perished: God 
had numbered his kingdom and finished it : it was 
divided and given to the Medes and Persians ; the 



PROPHECY FULFILLED IN BABYLON. 155 

lives of the Babylonian princes, and lords, and 
rulers, and captains closed with that night's festi- 
val : the drunken slept a perpetual sleep and did not 
wake. 1 

Isaiah and Jeremiah gave many particulars in 
their predictions, all of which were fulfilled to the 
letter in the capture of the city. It was said that 
"one post should run to meet another, and one mes- 
senger to meet another, to show to the king of 
Babylon that his city was taken at one end, and that 
the passages were stopped." The king was in the 
city, reveling with his lords, and yet was ignorant 
of the fact that the place was taken. As the allied 
armies entered Babylon at both ends, or sides, at 
the same time, the messengers, or posts, hastened 
with all speed, from opposite directions, to the pal- 
ace which was near the center, and met each other 
in conveying to the king the dire news that the 
city had fallen into the hands of his enemies. Then, 
too, the prophet had said : " I will fill thee with 
men as with caterpillars ;" and, " All her slain shall 
fall in the midst of her." At Babylon Cyrus re- 
viewed his victorious army numbering nearly a 
million of men, now within the city walls, where no 
enemy, save as captives, had ever marched before. 
Now came the hosts of the allied armies filling ail 
the streets of Babylon as caterpillars. Before the 

1 Herodotus and Xenophon, by Keith. 



I56 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

city fell the Babylonians, secure within the great 
walls, refused to go out to fight against Cyrus ; they 
remained within their holds and defied their ene- 
mies. In the siege none of them fell, but when the 
city was taken, in the midst of Babylon her king, 
her princes, her lords, and her mighty men were 
slain. Thus in every detail and particular were the 
predictions of the Bible accomplished. 

The remarkable prophecy, in which the general 
was named who was to carry out God's purposes 
and to accomplish the overthrow of Babylon, is 
without parallel in the Divine Record. Isaiah 
prophesied about two hundred years before the 
city was taken ; Josephus says two hundred and 
ten. The predictions were made between 798 and 
760 B. C. and Babylon was taken by Cyrus about 
B. C. 538. Herodotus was born about B. C. 484 and 
it is not likely that he knew of the prophecies of 
the Hebrew seers, but in his history he confirms 
them in a very remarkable manner. Again it may 
be said that prophecy is history foretold ; history is 
prophecy fulfilled. Isaiah and Jeremiah were the 
prophets, Herodotus and Xenophon the historians. 

Babylon did not lose its greatness or power after 
it fell into the hands of Cyrus. He left it to his 
successor a magnificent city. Rebelling against 
Darius it was again subjugated, not by force of 
arms, but by the treachery of Zobryas, who was in 



DESOLATION OF BABYLON. 



157 



command of the troops within the walls. He 
opened the gates before the king, and the Persians 
entered the city, and again it was given over to 
massacre. It was taken a third time by Alexander 
the Great, who sought to restore it to its former 
greatness and glory and to make of it the central 
capital of his universal empire. But while the tem- 
ple of Belus was being restored, and the embank- 
ments of the Euphrates repaired, the great con- 
queror died in the very prime of life, it is said in 
a drunken orgie. The man who had conquered the 
world failed to conquer himself. His attempt to re- 
store Babylon signally failed. The decree of the 
Almighty, Lord of heaven and earth, had gone forth 
by the mouth of His prophet, " It shall never be 
inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from gener- 
ation to generation." The indomitable will, the 
pride and ambition, and the unlimited resources of 
Alexander the Great were as nothing when they 
stood against the Word of the Lord. The very 
measures which he took to restore the city tended 
in the end to complete its destruction, for the canals 
which he dug assisted in flooding the land and mak- 
ing Babylon pools of water, and a home for the bit- 
tern. So God uses kings and conquerors to accom- 
plish His purpose. The great Babylon, the joy 
of the whole earth, was buried by His hand, and 
her walls, and her temples, her mighty palaces and 



I5& THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

magnificent residences have never been rebuilt, and 
when the last trump shall sound, and the mighty 
host of God shall be gathered together, the living 
and the dead, the once proud and wicked city shall 
be as it now is, a desolation without an inhabitant. 

Seleucus, one of the successors of Alexander the 
Great, appointed Patrocles as governor of Babylon. 
He became greatly alarmed at the approach of an 
enemy, and abandoning the city he and his army 
fled to the desert, believing they would be more se- 
cure in the wilderness than within the walls of 
Babylon. Upon entering the city Demetrius found 
it deserted. From this time on its decay was rapid. 
Seleucia was built not far distant, and the greater 
part of its population abandoned the old for the 
new city. As the centuries passed away the re- 
markable words of Isaiah came to their entire ful- 
fillment : " And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, 
the beauty of the Chaldeans' excellency, shall be 
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It 
shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt 
in from generation to generation, neither shall the 
Arabian pitch his tent there. But wild beasts of 
the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall 
be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell 
there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild 
beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate 
houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces." 



BABYLON THE HOME OF WILD BEASTS. 1 59 

This indeed was a bold prophecy, but it has been 
fulfilled to the letter. To say that a great city 
like Babylon should never be inhabited, doubtless 
seemed like a silly tale to its people ; but to-day 
the prophecy is history, and even the " Arabian 
does not pitch his tent there." The wandering 
Arab, on the plains of Arabia, or in the valleys of 
Syria, spreads his tent where night overtakes him 
and lies down under its folds in safety; but when 
he nears Babylon, he times his journey to reach a 
khan at the close of the day. 

The shepherd, no less fearful than the Arab, leads 
his flock through the marshes to feed through the 
day, but returns to the fortified khan ere sunset, 
thus confirming the prophetic words of Isaiah, 
" Neither shall shepherds make their folds there." 
In the fulfillment of the prophet's words, the ruins 
of Babylon have become a menagerie of wild beasts. 
Rauwolf, a German traveler who visited the ruined 
city in the sixteenth century, says of the temple of 
Belus: "This tower is full of venomous animals 
that can only be approached during the winter 
months when they do not leave their holes." A 
Carmelite monk passed the ruins in 1657 and 
" heard the roaring of the lions, which from time to 
time answered one another from the opposite shores 
of the river to our no small terror." In December, 
1881, Mr. Rich, English consul at Bagdad, made 



l6o THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

excavations among the ruins of Belshazzar's palace 
and says : " There are many dens of wild beasts 
in various parts, in one of which I found the bones 
of sheep and other wild animals, and perceived a 
strong smell, like that of a lion. I also found quan- 
tities of porcupine quills ; and in most of the cav- 
ities are numbers of owls and bats." 

Layard in his notes says : " In this section of 
country are to be found leopards, lynxes, wild cats, 
wolves, hyenas, jackals, deer, porcupine and other 
animals in vast numbers." Dr. Newman, who vis- 
ited Babylon in 1876, says : " A large lion was in 
the habit of coming from the Euphrates to a canal 
which I crossed on my way to Babylon, till he was 
shot by one of the Arabs. Captain Cowley, of the 
steamer on which I came up the Tigris, shot three 
lions, which had their lair on an island nearly oppo- 
site the ruined city." 

Mignan in his travels in the vicinity of Babylon 
was accompanied by six Arabs, all of whom were 
well armed, but when night came he could not in- 
duce them to remain in the neighborhood of what 
was once the joy of the whole earth. He says : 
" I could not induce them to remain toward night, 
from the apprehension of evil spirits. It is impos- 
sible to eradicate this idea from the minds of these 
people, who are very deeply imbued with supersti- 
tion." Porter in his travels gives this description 



BABYLON THE HOME OF WILD BEASTS. l6l 

of the mounds and heaps of Babylon: "The cav- 
erns, over which the chambers of majesty may have 
been spread, are now the refuge of jackals and other 
savage animals. The mouths of their entrances are 
strewed with the bones of sheep and goats ; and the 
loathsome smell that proceeds from most of them 
is sufficient warning not to proceed into the den. 
Two or three majestic lions were seen upon its 
heights, and the broad prints of their feet were left 
plain in the clayey soil." 

Major Keppel in his narrative has this to say 
about the ruins of Babylon : " The mound was full 
of holes; we entered some of them, and found them 
strewed with carcasses and skeletons of animals re- 
cently killed. The odor of wild beasts was so 
strong that prudence got the better of curiosity, for 
we had no doubt as to the savage nature of the 
inhabitants. Our guides, indeed, told us that all 
the ruins abounded in lions and other wild beasts ; 
so literally has the divine prediction been fulfilled 
that wild beasts of the desert should lie there, and 
their houses be full of doleful creatures ; that the 
wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate 
houses." 

Of the gradual decline of Babylon Keith has to 
say that about the beginning of the Christian era 
a small portion of it was inhabited, and far the 
greater part was cultivated. It diminished as Se- 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



leucia increased and became the larger city. In the 
second century nothing but its walls remained. It 
became gradually a great desert, and in the fourth 
century its walls, repaired for that purpose, formed 
the enclosure for wild beasts, and Babylon was 
converted into a field for the chase, a hunting place 
for the pastime of the Persian monarchs. The 
name and remnant were cut off from Babylon ; and 
there is a blank, during the interval of many ages, 
in the history of its mutilated remains and mould- 
ering decay. It remained long in the possession of 
the Saracens ; and abundant evidence has been 
given that every feature of its prophesied desolation 
is now distinctly visible, for the most ancient his- 
torians bore not a clearer testimony to the facts 
confirmatory of the prophecies relative to its first 
siege and capture by Cyrus, than the latest travelers 
bear to the fulfillment of those which refer to. its 
final permanent ruin. The identity of its site has 
been completely established. And the truth of 
every general and every particular prediction is 
now so clearly demonstrated that a simple exhibi- 
tion of the facts precludes the possibility of any 
cavil, and supersedes the necessity of any reasoning 
on the subject. . 

In concluding this chapter, in view of the testi- 
mon}^ already given, may not the question be per- 
tinently asked, Has not every prediction made by 



PROPHECIES ABOUT BABYLON FULFILLED. 1 63 



the prophets of the Lord concerning Babylon been 
literally fulfilled? Has not every purpose of the 
Lord been performed? Where is there a spot on 
the earth that has undergone such a complete 
change? Jerusalem is being rebuilt, and is inhab- 
ited, but Babylon is the very picture of desolation 
even unto this day. Its ruins have been, and are 
now being most carefully searched by scholars and 
investigators from America and Europe, and every 
new discovery only adds to the evidence that every 
prediction concerning Babylon has been fulfilled. 
And so the Bible narrative, after all the tests that 
have been applied to it by honest critics and dis- 
honest infidels, stands, the one Book alone of all 
books that cannot be moved. And well may it 
stand, for it was written by the finger of God. 



CHAPTER TEN. 



Prophecies Concerning Nineveh and Tyre. 

Woe to the bloody city! it is full of lies and robbery. Thy 
crowned are as the locust, and thy captains as the great grass- 
hoppers, which camp in the hedges in a cold day, but when 
the sun ariseth they flee azvay, and their place is not known 
where they are. — Nah. j: i, 17. 

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against 
thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up 
against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. — Ezek. 
26: 3. 

To write even a brief sketch of the predictions of the 
Bible, and their fulfillment would be to write volumes 
of history. The burden of prophecy was taken up 
against many of the ancient cities of the Bible lands, 
and in every particular the prophecies have been ful- 
filled. Reference might be made to Memphis, Thebes, 
Heliopolis, Damascus, Samaria, Shiloh, Jericho, and 
many others, but we must content ourselves with brief 
mention of Nineveh the city of blood, and Tyre the 
city of merchants. 

East of the Tigris, and north of its junction with the 
Zab, was the great city to which Jonah was sent by the 
Lord. It is true that the prophet traveled in a con- 
trary direction, by way of Joppa and a ship on the 
Great Sea, but he finally reached the city to which he 

had been sent and cried in its streets, " Yet forty days 

164 



SIZE OF NINEVEH. 165 

and Nineveh shall be overthrown." The king and his 
people heard the warning, repented, and the doom of 
the city was averted for the time. " Nineveh was an 
exceeding great city of three days' journey." 1 The 
earliest record we have of the place is to be found in the 
tenth chapter of Genesis, " Out of that land went forth 
Asshur and builded Nineveh." This occurred, probab- 
ly, 2182 B. C. The building of Nineveh marked the 
founding of the great Assyrian empire which domi- 
nated the East for many centuries with a rod of iron. 
It continued in power until about B. C. 600, or more 
than fifteen hundred years ; a duration of empire with- 
out parallel in the history of nations. 

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria and in its most 
prosperous days contained over six hundred thousand 
inhabitants. Strabo states that it was even larger than 
Babylon, and Calmet says, " It must be owned that 
Nineveh was one of the most ancient, the most famous, 
the most potent, and the largest cities of the world." 
Herodotus tells of the great height of its walls and 
its mighty towers filled with soldiers, of whom over 
six hundred thousand were quartered in the city at 
one time. 

The prophet of the Lord named Nineveh well when 
he called it " the bloody city." The record of the 
cruelties practiced upon their captives by the kings of 
Assyria is not exceeded by like records in history. 

1 Jonah 3 : 3. 



l66 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

They were great warriors and brought vast numbers 
of captives to their capital, and these were subjected to 
tortures too horrible to relate. Sennacherib in one 
notable expedition against his enemies brought two 
hundred thousand prisoners to Nineveh. Sargon 
raised a mound outside of the city with the skulls of 
prisoners taken in war, and it is recorded on one of the 
ancient tablets that Sennacherib salted and packed 
the heads of his captives in baskets for the same pur- 
pose. One of the records found in recent excavations 
reads as follows : " Three thousand of their captives 
I consigned to the flames ; as hostages I left none of 
them alive. Hulai, the governor of their town, I cap- 
tured by my hand alive ; their corpses into piles I built ; 
their boys and maidens I dishonored ; Hulai, the gov- 
ernor of their city, I flayed, his skin on the walls of 
Damdamusa I placed in contempt. . . . Many sol- 
diers I captured alive, of some I chopped off the hands 
and feet, of others the noses and ears I cut off; of 
many soldiers I destroyed the eyes ; one pile of bodies 
while yet alive, and one of heads I reared up on the 
heights within their town." 1 

" Woe to the bloody city, for she is full of lies and 
robbery," and her sins and cruelty reach unto heaven. 
But the day of retribution was rapidly approaching, 
the cup of her wickedness and heartless cruelty was 
filled to the brim and was running over. When the 

1 Rodwell, " Records of the Past," vol. III., pp. 49-51. 



PROPHECY AGAINST NINEVEH. l6j 

kings of Nineveh had become a terror to all the rulers 
of the East, when the very name of the city struck ter- 
ror to the hearts of the surrounding nations, when 
her cruelties and her mad revelings in the blood of 
her helpless captives reached unto heaven, the end 
came. " Woe to the bloody city ; fear her not, for 
God is against her." Just sixty years after the proph- 
et of Judea lifted up his voice in predictions 
against Nineveh, the end came, the city was taken by 
storm and destroyed. So complete was its destruction 
that three hundred years later Alexander the Great 
fought the battle of Arbela near the former site of 
Nineveh, but saw no trace of the city. For twenty- 
three centuries it was lost to the sight of man ; then 
Niebuhr was sent to explore, if possible, the ruins of 
the ancient city, and he passed over it, unaware that 
he was treading above its buried streets. How liter- 
ally were the words of the prophet verified : " And He 
will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy 
Assyria ; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry 
like a wilderness. And the flocks shall lie down in the 
midst of her, all the beasts of the nations : both the 
cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper 
lintels of it ; their voice shall sing in the windows ; des- 
olation shall be in the thresholds : for He shall uncover 
the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt 
carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is 
none beside me : how is she become a desolation, a 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



place for every beast to lie down in ! every one that 
passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand." 1 

The prophet Nahum opens his book with these 
words : " The burden of Nineveh. The book of the 
vision of Nahum the Elkoshite," and his prophecy con- 
tained in three short chapters refers directly to the 




Drinking Scene from Rawlinson's Five 
Great Monarchies. 



destruction of Nineveh. The Ninevites were not only 
a cruel, bloodthirsty people, but were also given to 
much wine, and drunkenness was prevalent among 
them. The excavations of the ruins of the ancient 
city have brought to light abundant proof of this fact, 

1 Zeph. 2: 13-15- 



A BANQUETING SCENE. 169 

which is confirmatory of the Bible statement. Speak- 
ing of their drinking banquets Rawlinson says : " The 
arrangement of their banquets is curious. The guests, 
who are in one instance some forty or fifty in number, 
instead of being received at a common table, are di- 
vided into messes of four, who sit together, two and 
two, facing each other, each mess having its own table 
and its own attendant. The guests are all clothed in 
long tasseled gowns, over which they wear the deeply 
fringed cross belt. They have sandals on their feet, 
and on their arms armlets and bracelets. They sit on 
high stools, from which their legs' dangle ; but in no 
case have they footstools, which would apparently have 
been a great convenience. Most of the guests are 
bearded men, but intermixed with them we see a few 
eunuchs. Every guest holds in his right hand a wine 
cup of a most elegant shape, the lower part modeled in- 
to the form of a lion's head, from which the cup itself 
rises in a graceful curve. They all raise their cups to 
a level with their heads, and look as if they were 
pledging each other, or else one and all drinking the 
same toast. In the banqueting scenes from which the 
above descriptions are chiefly taken, it is shown that 
the Assyrians, like the Egyptians and the Greeks in 
heroic times, had the entertainment of music at their 
grand feasts and drinking bouts. At one end of the 
long series of figures representing guests and attend- 
ants was a band of performers, at least three in 



I^O THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

number, two of whom certainly played upon the lyre. 
The lyres were ten stringed, of a square shape, and 
hung around the player's neck by a string or riband." 1 
It will be observed that the table in the engraving is 
bare of food. On the tables are a rude-shaped cres- 
cent, and a peculiar article which Rawlinson supposes 
to be an emblem of royalty. The scene represents a 
drinking bout, and the large cups are an evidence of 
the great amount of wine that was consumed. It was 
the custom to drink until all were drunken. The 
prophet said : " For while they be folded together as 
thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they 
shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." 2 Diodorus, 
the Greek historian, describes in detail how this pre- 
diction was fulfilled. He tells how the king of Assyria, 
elated over the great success attending his victorious 
army, and ignorant of the real strength of his enemies, 
and especially of the rebellion of the Bactrians, ap- 
pointed a great festival and furnished his soldiers with 
such abundance of wine that all had more than they 
could drink. As a result his army, with its officers, 
were ^11 soon " drunken as drunkards." In the midst 
of their debauchery, the enemy, apprised of their con- 
dition, fell upon them, destroyed the gi eater part of 
them, and drove the rest out of the city. They were 
devoured even as stubble fully dry. The same author 
states that the king of Nineveh, finding that his city 

1 " Five Great Monarchies," pp. 579, 580. 2 Nahum 1: 10. 



PROPHECY FULFILLED IN NINEVEH. I7I 

had fallen into the hands of his enemies, and having 
in mind the ancient prophecy that the place should be 
destroyed, made a great " funeral pile, on which he 
heaped his wealth, and with which himself, his house- 
hold, and palace, were consumed." 

Nahum also prophesied that Nineveh should be de- 
stroyed by fire and flood. It is a record of history 
that the river wall of the city, attacked by the flood- 
ed waters of the Tigris, fell to the ground, and thus 
were the gates of the river opened and the palace 
was dissolved. What escaped the flood was destroyed 
by the fire and the sword. " There shall the fire de- 
vour thee ; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat 
thee up like the canker worm." Recent discoveries 
at Nineveh show that the fire played a formidable 
part in the utter destruction of the city. Thus were 
the just judgments of heaven visited upon the " bloody 
city," and upon its people who reveled in sin and 
wickedness, and whose cruelty and barbarity is with- 
out parallel in the annals of history. 

The excavation at Nineveh carried forward by Mr. 
Layard, beginning in 1849, an( ^ s ^ continued by the 
University of Pennsylvania, has revealed not only the 
exact fulfillment of prophecy, but has verified in 
many instances the Bible records. The dust and the 
stones of the ancient city have spoken in unmistak- 
able terms, giving abundant proof of the Bible nar- 
rative. In excavating, the royal palace of Sennach- 



172 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

erib was discovered and uncovered, and the por- 
tion built of brick and stone still remains as a wit- 
ness of the magnitude of the king's residence. Here 
was also found the royal library, the books made of 
clay in the shape of tablets and cylinders, and the 
inscriptions made while the clay was soft. After be- 
ing inscribed the tablets were glazed and burned in 
ovens prepared for the purpose, and then placed in 
the king's library, where they remained undisturbed 
for nearly twenty-five centuries. More than twenty 
thousand of these terra cotta books have been res- 
cued from their burial place and are now to be found 
in the British Museum. Here are to be found rec- 
ords of campaigns and battles merely hinted at in the 
Bible, and wherever the Bible accounts and these old 
records come in touch with each other, they fit to- 
gether as a tenon cut for a mortise. 

The Bible tells briefly that Sennacherib captured 
the city of Lachish, and among the ancient tablets 
found in Nineveh is a complete record, and a full 
description of the campaign. It tells how the city 
was besieged and taken and what cruelties were vis- 
ited upon the inhabitants and how the captives were 
tortured to death. 

Isaiah gives a record of the downfall of Ashdod 
in the following words : "In the year that Tartan 
came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria 



ASHDOD TAKEN BY SARGON. 173 

sent him,) and fought against Ashdod and took it." 1 
In the fourth verse he refers to the fact that its 
garrison was composed of Egyptians and Ethiopians. 
Every record of the great Assyrian monarch, save 
this one contained in the Bible, was lost. No his- 
tory even contained his name. The excavations re- 
vealed not only an account of Sargon, but also 
an account of the taking of Ashdod. Sargon 
says : " In my ninth expedition to the land be- 
side the great sea, I went to Philistia and Ashdod. 
Azuri, king of Ashdod, hardened his heart not to 
bring tribute, and sent enemies of Assyria to the 
kings round him and did evil. I broke his domin- 
ion, . . . and the cities of Ashdod and Gimzo of 
the Ashdodites I besieged and captured." Here is 
a wonderful confirmation of God's Word. 

The Bible gives an account of the invasion of Ju- 
dea by Sennacherib, and of the amount of tribute 
paid by Hezekiah to gain the favor of that great king. 
The old tablets reveal the following account of the 
invasion, written by Sennacherib himself : " Because 
Hezekiah would not submit to my yoke, I came up 
against him, and by force of arms and by the might 
of my power, I took forty-six of his strong-fenced 
cities ; and of the smaller towns which were scattered 
about I took and plundered a countless number. 

1 Isa. 20 : 1. 



174 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

And from these places I took and carried off as 
spoil 200,150 people, old and young, male and fe- 
male, together with horses and mares, asses and cam- 
els, oxen and sheep a countless multitude. And Hez- 
ekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem like a bird in 
a cage, building towers around the city to hem him 
in, and raising banks of earth against the gates to 
prevent his escape. Then upon this Hezekiah there 
fell the fear of my arms, and he sent out to me 
the chiefs and elders of Jerusalem with thirty talents 
of gold and eight hundred talents of silver, and divers 
treasures, a rich and immense booty. All these things 
were brought to me at Nineveh the seat of my gov- 
ernment, Hezekiah having them sent by way of trib- 
ute, and as a token of his submission to my power." 
Compare the simple Bible record with the boasting 
record of the Assyrian king: " Now in the fourteenth 
year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of As- 
syria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, 
and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to 
the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have of- 
fended ; return from me: that which thou puttest 
on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria ap- 
pointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred 
talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And 
Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in 
the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the 



Sennacherib's invasion. 175 

king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the 
gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and 
from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had 
overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria." 1 The 
remarkable agreement between the Assyrian record 
and the Bible narrative is a wonderful coincidence 
of historic records and is a strong proof of the great 
accuracy of the Bible. It is not at all surprising that 
the boasting Assyrian should have increased, in his 
account, the amount received as tribute, and that he 
should have placed in the same record the number 
of prisoners and the prey taken from other cities on 
the same victorious expedition. 

Again Sennacherib invaded Judea, but no boasting 
record is left of that campaign. The Bible tells of it 
in this language : " And it came to pass that night, 
that the ( angel of the Lord went out and smote in 
the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred, four score 
and five thousand." The boasting Assyrian left no 
record of his terrible defeat. He had no desire to 
preserve the memory of his overthrow. The records 
are as silent as the one hundred and eighty-five thou- 
sand unburied Assyrian corpses which he left to the 
vultures and the hyenas of Syria. One of Byron's 
most beautiful melodies was written on the over- 
throw of Sennacherib. We give it below in full: 



1 2 Kings 18: 14, 15. 



176 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



" The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; 
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea 
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. 

" Like the leaves of the forest when the summer is green, 
That host with their banners at sunset were seen: 
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, 
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. 

" For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; 
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill, 
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still. 

" And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, 
But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride, 
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 
And as cold as the spray on the rock beating surf, 

" And there lay the rider distorted and pale, 
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail; 
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 
The lances uplifted, the trumpets unblown. 

" And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail, 
And the idols are broke in the temples of Baal; 
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord." 

The Bible informs us of the murder of Sennach- 
erib by his two elder sons, but gives no clue as 
to the motive of the murderers. The clay tablets re- 
veal the motives. Here is a translation of the king's 
will, taken from tablets now in the British Museum : 
" Sennacherib, king of multitudes, king of Assyria, 



TABLETS CONFIRM THE BIBLE. 1 77 

has given chains of gold, stores of ivory, a cup of 
gold, crowns and chains besides, all the riches, of 
which there are heaps, crystals and other precious 
stones, and bird's stone; one and a half manehs,.two 
and a half cibi according to their weight, to Esar- 
haddon, my son." The elder brothers, jealous of the 
favored younger son, rebelled and slew their father. 
The Bible reference to the event is very brief. It 
says : " And it came to pass, as Sennacherib was wor- 
shiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adram- 
elech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the 
sword," 1 

In the Bible we are informed that Manasseh was 
carried in chains by the king- of Assyria to Babylon. 
But Babylon was not the capital of Assyria, and why 
should the king desert Nineveh, his own capital, for 
Babylon? A parallel case would be found if Bis- 
marck, in the Franco-Prussian war, had carried his 
prisoners to London. Here, at last, the critics con- 
cluded that they had discovered a notable error in 
the Brble record ; but before they had ceased empha- 
sizing the supposed inaccuracy, the excavated mon- 
uments and the library revealed the fact that this 
same king, Esar-haddon, had made Babylon his roy- 
al residence, and that the Bible narrative was strictly 
true. 

1 2 Kings 19: 37. 



I78 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

The Destruction of the City of Tyre. 

It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst 
of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it 
shall become a spoil to the nations. — Ezek. 26: 5. 

Six hundred years before the coming of Christ the 
prophet Ezekiel took up the burden of prophecy 
against Tyre, the city of merchants, and foretold its 
utter destruction. It was the great metropolis of the 
Levant, the most celebrated city in the world, and the 
business emporium of the Orient. Volney describes 
it in these words : "It was the theater of an im- 
mense commerce and navigation, the nursery of the 
arts and sciences, and the city of perhaps the most 
industrious and active people known. It stood easily 
at the head of commerce, and Carthage, the rival of 
Rome, was one of its colonies. Its sails whitened every 
port then open to navigation, and merchant princes 
and captains of industry grew rich in their trade 
with all parts of the known world." If one would 
know the greatness of the city let him read Ezekiel's 
description and learn how Tyre was wholly given to 
money-making and pleasure-seeking. 

Keith says that while Tyre was the mart of na- 
tions and in its opulence and power, and at least one 
hundred and twenty-five years before the destruction 
of old Tyre, Isaiah pronounced its irrevocable fall. 
Tyre on the island succeeded to the more ancient city 
on the continent : and — being inhabited by the same 



EZEKIEI/S PROPHECY FULFILLED. 1 79 

people, retaining the same name, and being removed 
but a little space, and occupying in part the same 
ground — the fate of both is included in the prophecy. 
The pride and wickedness of the Tyrians, their ex- 
ultation over the calamities of the Israelites, and their 
cruelty in selling them to slavery, are assigned as the 
reasons of the judgments that were to overtake them, 
or as the causes of the revelation of the destiny of 
their city. And the whole fate of Tyre was foretold. 

Ezekiel's description of the commerce, riches, and 
pride of Tyre, the ancient queen of the ocean, is des- 
ignated by Volney a valuable historical fragment ; and 
he cites the words, as he terms it, " in all their pro- 
phetic enthusiasm." But the prophet denounced its 
doom before he described its splendor and power; 
and he traced its future history, with all the pre- 
cision of truth, till the city that was perfect in beauty 
became a place whereon fishers spread their nets, till 
the stones and timbers of its superb dwellings were 
cast into the midst of the waters, and the very dust 
was scraped from off the place where the princely 
merchants gloried in their pride, and heaped up their 
silver and gold. The marvelous facts which Ezekiel 
and other prophets foretold give to observant readers a 
full and complete prophetic history of the downfall 
and ruin of Tyre. In every detail the prophecy has 
been literally fulfilled. 



i8o 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



These are the words of the prophet when Tyre 
was in the height of her power and pride : " Because 
that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she if 
broken that was the gates of the people : she is turned 
unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: 
therefore saith the Lord God ; Behold, I am against 
thee, O Tyrus, and I will cause many nations tc 
come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves 
to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of 




Fishermen Spreading Nets at 
Modern Tyre. 



Tyrus, and break down her towers : I will also scrape 
her dust from her, and make her like the top of a 
rock. It shall be the place for the spreading of net? 
in the midst of the sea : for I have spoken it, saith 
the Lord God : and it shall become a spoil to the 
nations." 1 

Against Tyre came the Chaldeans under Nebuchad 
nezzar, and later the Greeks under Alexander tht 



L Ezek. 26: 2-5. 



HOW TYRE WAS TAKEN. l8l ' 

Great. The city was entirely destroyed by the latter 
after a most remarkable siege, and one of the most 
singular events in history was the manner in which 
the great conqueror conducted the siege against Tyre. 
History records the fact that the general, becoming 
irritated that " a single city should oppose his vic- 
torious march, enraged at the murder of some of 
his soldiers, and fearful of his fame, even his army 
despairing of success could not deter him from the 
siege." And Tyre was taken in this manner, the 
success of which was more wonderful than the de- 
sign was daring: for it was surrounded by a wall 
one hundred and fifty feet in height, and situated on 
an island half a mile distant from the shore. A mound 
was formed from the continent to the island ; and 
the ruins of old Tyre afforded ready materials for 
the purpose. Such was the work that the attempt at 
first defeated the power of Alexander. The enemy 
consumed and the storm destroyed it. But its re- 
mains, buried beneath the waters, formed a barrier 
which rendered successful his renewed efforts. A 
vast mass of additional matter was requisite. The soil 
and the very rubbish were gathered and heaped. And 
the mighty conqueror, who afterward failed in rais- 
ing again any of the ruins of Babylon, cast those of 
Tyre into the sea, and took her very DUST from 
off her. And so the words of the prophet were lit- 



1 82 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



erally fulfilled, for they laid her stones, and her tim- 
ber and her dust in the midst of the water. 1 

It is not an easy matter to destroy a great city, the 
center of the trade and commerce of nations. Noth- 
ing short of a complete revolution can bring about 
such a result. In 1884 New York city was destroyed 
by fire, but it was speedily rebuilt and became great- 
er and larger than ever. In 1871 Chicago was burned 
with a mighty conflagration, but she rose, Phcenix- 
like, from her ashes, and to-day has a population of 
two million souls. These cities were the centers of 
trade and commerce, and it is a very difficult mat- 
ter to blot a city of this kind out of existence. 

No doubt the merchants of Tyre thought the same 
of their great city, and laughed the words of the 
prophet to scorn. The ancient city was destroyed. 
More than two thousand years have passed away 
since the conqueror laid her dust and timbers and stone 
in the midst of the waters of the sea and put an end 
to her greatness, and the city has never been rebuilt. 

Travelers who visit the modern fishing town of 
Tyre are deeply impressed with the description of the 
former greatness of the place as compared with its 
present condition. Maundrell says : " You find 
here no similitude of that glory for which it was so 
renowned in ancient times. You see nothing here 
but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, etc. 

1 Ezek. 26: 12. 



TYRE A PLACE TO SPREAD NETS. 1 83 

Its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, 
harboring themselves in the vaults, and subsist- 
ing chiefly on fishing, who seem to be preserved in 
this place by divine providence, as a visible argu- 
ment how God hath fulfilled His word concerning 
Tyre." Bruce and Shaw both tell of the fishermen 
who dry their nets on the rocks by the sea. The 
latter says : " The port of Tyre, small as it is at pres- 
ent, is choked up to that degree with sand and rub- 
bish, that the boats of those fishermen who now and 
then visit this once renowned emporium, and dry their 
nets upon its rocks and ruins, can with great difficulty 
only be admitted." Volney in his " Ruined Cities " 
has this to say about the place : " The whole village 
of Tyre contains only fifty or sixty poor families 
who live obscurely on the produce of their little ground 
and a trifling fishery." Since Volney wrote, the place 
has grown to be a considerable village, but not a 
mark of its former greatness is to be seen. As you 
walk along the seashore and see the fishermen spread 
their nets on the rocks from which the dust has been 
scraped, you are reminded that God in His own time 
and in His own way brings to pass the words of His 
prophets, and you are forced to exclaim, What abun- 
dant evidence is here given of the inspiration of God's 
Holy Book. 



CHAPTER ELEVEN. 



Prophecies Concerning the Coming of Christ. 

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
between her seed and thy seed; it shall bruise thy head, and 
thou shalt bruise his heel. — Gen. 3: 4. 

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the 
government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall 
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The ever- 
lasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of 
His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the 
throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to 
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth 
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform 
this. — Isa. 9: 6, 7. 

From the record of the fall of Adam to the closing 
of the Old Testament history, by the prophet Mal- 
achi, the Bible is full of prophecies concerning the 
coming of the Savior of mankind. The Book con- 
tains no less than three hundred and sixty-six proph- 
ecies all of which meet, in all their details and par- 
ticulars, and find their actual fulfillment in the per- 
son of our Lord Jesus Christ. Within the scope 
of this work it is not possible to allude to all of these 
prophecies even in the very briefest manner. We must 
therefore satisfy ourselves with a very brief exam- 
ination of some of the more prominent as showing 
how clearly they prove the inspiration of the Holy 

Scriptures. Jesus said : " Search the Scriptures ; for 

184 



PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST. 185 

in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they are 
they which testify of Me." John 5 : 39. The read- 
er, it is hoped, will be induced to search the Scriptures, 
both Old and New, to learn how clearly they testify 
of Christ. 

Four thousand years before the birth of Christ 
came the promise from God to the fallen race that 
the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's 
head, and from that time on down the centuries the 
prophets of the Lord, looking into the future, kept 
adding prophecy upon prophecy, and detail upon de- 
tail, until hundreds of lines of predictions — all point- 
ing to Christ — were given. From Moses to Mala- 
chi all center in the cross, all find fulfillment in 
Jesus of Nazareth. Let us look at the particulars, 
and examine the details, and see how wonderfully the 
words of prophecy have been fulfilled. Beginning 
with his genealogy, — for even this was made the 
subject of prophecy, — we have the call of the patri- 
arch Abraham and the promise made to him in God's 
own words, " And in thy seed shall all the nations 
of the earth be blessed ; " the selection of Isaac, " the 
child of promise," the choosing of Jacob, and the pre- 
diction that the sceptre should not depart from Judah, 
nor a lawgiver cease from among his descendants till 
Shiloh should come. 1 It was also predicted that from 
the midst of the Israelites the Lord should " raise 

1 Gen. 49: 10. 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



up unto thee a Prophet, from the midst of thee, of 
thy brethren, like unto Me; unto Him shall ye heark- 
en." This Prophet was to come from the tribe of Ju- 
dah and of the house of David. " And there shall 
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a 
Branch shall grow out of his roots ; and the Spirit of 
the Lord shall be upon Him." 1 He was to judge the 
people not by seeing or hearing, but in righteousness 
was He to render judgment, and the Gentiles were 
also to seek after Him. The prophet Jeremiah par- 
ticularly predicts that the Messiah should come from 
the house of David. " Behold, the days come, saith 
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall 
execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his 
days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell 
safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be 
called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." 2 
And so in the fullness of time, according to God's 
purpose, there was born at Bethlehem, unto the tribe 
of Judah in the direct line of descent of the house 
of David, the stem of Jesse, a Child whose name 
was called Jesus. In Him, and in Him alone, do all 
these prophecies meet and find their fulfillment. In 
Him, and in Him alone, of all the descendants of 
Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the house of Da- 

1 Isa. ii : i -io. 2 Jer. 23: 5, 6. 



PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST. 187 

vid, can all the nations of the earth be blessed. After 
Him, and after Him alone, do the Gentiles seek. Who 
is this Branch of the lineage of David? He is Christ, 
the King, the Savior of the world. 

But not only was the genealogy of Christ pointed 
out, but the country in which He was to be born 
was named. The southern part of Syria was se- 
lected for this important event, and with the nam- 
ing of the country one would think the prophets 
would have rested content. But God gave them de- 
tails and particulars and told them that the land of 
Canaan, in a twofold sense the land of promise, was 
set apart for the nativity of the Son of God. But 
Palestine was divided into three parts : Samaria, Gal- 
ilee and Judea, and the prophet pointed out the land 
of Judah, a territory not larger than the counties 
in some of our States. But this was not enough, 
and the very village in which Christ was to be born 
was chosen and named. There were hundreds of cities 
and villages in Judea at the time of the birth of the 
Son of God, but little Bethlehem, six miles from Je- 
rusalem, was selected, and its full name — Bethlehem 
Ephratah — given because there were several villages 
in Judea at that time called Bethlehem. " But thou, 
Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among 
the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come 
forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



goings forth have been from of old, from everlast- 
ing." 1 

The decree of Caesar had gone forth seven years 
before this time, when Cyrenias was governor of Syria, 
that the whole world should be taxed. The time had 
come when the Virgin should bring forth her child, 
the Son of God, and the whole world was put in 
motion to bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, where 
Christ was to be born according to prophecy. As 
the shepherds watched their flocks by night on the 
plains about the peaceful village, the angelic choir 
announced the birth of the Son of God, and the pre- 
dictions of forty centuries were fulfilled. 

And then, too, the place of the birth of the Messiah 
was not only designated in prophetical language, but 
the time of His coming was predicted so that the 
date of His advent was fixed. A period of time was 
set from the giving of the command to restore Je- 
rusalem under Ezra to the coming of Messiah the 
Prince : " Seventy weeks are determined upon thy peo- 
ple and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, 
and to make an end of sins, and to make reconcili- 
ation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting right- 
eousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and 
to anoint the Most Holy. Know, therefore, and un- 
derstand, that from the going forth of the command- 
ment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Mes- 

^icah 5: 2. 



Christ's death foretold. * 189 

siah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore 
and two weeks : the street shall be built again, and 
the wall, even in troublous times. And after three- 
score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but 
not for Himself : and the people of the Prince that 
shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary ; 
and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and un- 
to the end of the war desolations are determined." 1 

This remarkable prophecy, which has been the oc- 
casion of much comment, is undoubtedly Messianic 
in its character, referring to the coming of Christ, 
His death and the destruction of Jerusalem by the 
Romans. In foretelling the destruction of the Holy 
City our Lord refers to the prophecy Himself in these 
words : " When ye therefore shall see the abomina- 
tion of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 
stand in the holy place." While a difference of opin- 
ion obtains as to some of the details of the prophecy., 
yet in the main it is held to refer to the Messiah. 
Let us very briefly look at some of the details of the 
prediction. 

The Tews had Sabbatic years (Lev. 25: 8) by 
hich they divided time into weeks of years, as in 
.his important prophecy, each week containing seven 
years. The seventy weeks, therefore, here spoken of 
amount to four hundred and ninety years. Six events 

1 Dan. 9: 24-26. 



190 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

are mentioned in verse twenty-four, all of which find 
their fulfillment in Christ. These are : 

First. To finish the transgression; which was ef- 
fected by the preaching of the Gospel, and the pour- 
ing out of the Holy Ghost among men. 

Second. To make an end of sins, or rather to 
make an end of sin offerings, which our Lord did 
when He offered His spotless soul and body on the 
cross once for all. He became the one great sin 
offering for the whole world. 

Third. To make reconciliation, atonement or expi- 
ation for iniquity, which He did by offering up Him- 
self for the sins of the human race. 

Fourth. To bring in everlasting righteousness ; that 
is, the righteousness or the Righteous One of the ages, 
Jesus, who had been the object of the faith of man- 
kind, and the subject of the predictions of the prophets 
through all the ages. 

Fifth. To seal up, to finish or complete the vi- 
sion and prophecy ; that is, to put an end to any further 
necessity of revelation. Christ, the fulfillment of 
prophecy, and in Him God's last revelation to the 
children of men. 

Sixth. To anoint the Most Holy. The evident 
meaning here is the consecration or appointment of 
our blessed Lord to be the Holy One of Israel, to 
be Prophet, Priest and King of mankind. 



TIME OF CHRIST'S ADVENT FORETOLD. I9I 

The language in the twenty-fifth verse, " From the 
going forth of the commandment to restore and build 
Jerusalem," marks the beginning of the years of weeks, 
or of the period of four hundred and ninety years. 
There is a general agreement that Christ was cru- 
cified at the passover in the month of Nisan in the 
year 4790 of the Julian period, or precisely four hun- 
dred and ninety years after Ezra had received his 
commission from Artaxerxes, king of Persia, to re- 
store and rebuild Jerusalem. 

It would be most interesting to follow the details 
and particulars of this remarkable prophecy further, 
but space forbids. The reader is referred to the 
works of Dean Prideaux, a most learned writer on 
this subject, from whom these facts and reflections 
on the subject have, for the most part, been drawn. 
It is enough for our purpose that the time of the 
advent of our Lord was predicted with unerring cer- 
tainty by the prophet of God more than five hun- 
dred years before the Babe of Bethlehem was born. 

But the fixing of the date of His coming, and 
the birthplace of Christ did not exhaust the predic- 
tions concerning our Lord. He was to be the desire 
of all nations, the Messenger of the covenant; and 
the Lord whom they sought was to come to the 
second temple, and impart to it, by his presence, a 
greater glory than the former had known. 1 A mes- 

1 Haggai 2: 7-9. 



192 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

senger was to appear before Him, the voice of one 
crying in the wilderness, to prepare His way, 1 and 
when the prescribed time was at hand for the com- 
ing of the Messiah, at the commencement of the Chris- 
tian era, before Jesus began His public ministry, a 
messenger did appear to prepare His way, in the per- 
son of John the Baptist. Of this messenger of the 
Lord, Josephus, the historian, says he was a preacher 
of great virtue ; that he taught righteousness and piety ; 
that he baptized those who accepted his doctrines; 
that he was received well by all the people ; that Herod 
through fear of him imprisoned and put him to death, 
and that Herod was living unlawfully with Herodias, 
his brother's wife. 2 

The circumstances attending the birth of our Lord, 
His active ministry, what He said and did, and His 
character, are to be found in the history of His life 
given by the four evangelists. No other life, no oth- 
er character like His, has ever found portrayal in 
this world. Divine inspiration was required to tell the 
story of the life of Christ, and of a character both 
divine and human in its nature. Of Him one of the 
great poets has said: " If ever God was man, or man 
God, Christ was both." Turning again to the proph- 
ets we read the predictions concerning the life and 
character of our Lord and find that the word of 
prophecy is no less sure in this than in other 

1 Isa. 40: 3. 

2 Josephus' Antiquities, book 18, chap. 5, sec. 2. 



PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST. I93 

events connected with the coming, the life, and the 
death of the Messiah. 

To quote all the prophecies pertaining to the life 
and work of Jesus would be to go far beyond the 
limit of space allotted in this work. The reader 
must be content with a brief mention of some of 
them. " And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon 
Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the 
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge 
and of the fear of the Lord ; and shall make Him 
of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord : and 
He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, nei- 
ther reprove after the hearing of His ears : but with 
righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove 
with equity for the meek of the earth. . . . And 
righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and 
faithfulness the girdle of His reins. 1 . . . Thou 
art fairer than the children of men : grace is poured 
into Thy lips : therefore God hath blessed Thee for- 
ever. . . . The sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right 
sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wick- 
edness : therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee 
with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." 2 " He 
shall feed His flock like a shepherd : He shall gather 
the lambs with His arms, and carry them in his bos- 
om, and shall gently lead those that are with young." 3 
. , . " Behold My servant, whom I uphold, Mine 

1 Isa. ii : 2-5. 2 Psa. 45: 2, 6, 7. 3 Isa. 40: 11. 



194 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

elect, in whom My soul delighteth ; I have put My 
spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to 
the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause 
His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed 
shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He 
not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto 
truth." 1 . . . " Behold, thy King cometh unto 
thee; He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and 
riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an 
ass." 2 . . . " He had done no violence, neither 
was any deceit in His mouth." 3 . . . " He was 
oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened 
not His mouth : He is brought as a lamb to the 
slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, 
so He openeth not His mouth." 4 ..." I gave 
My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to those 
who plucked off the hair : I hid not My face from 
shame and spittting." 5 . . . " For He shall deliv- 
er the needy when he crieth, the poor also and him 
that hath no helper. He shall redeem their soul from 
deceit and violence : and precious shall their blood be 
in His sight. His name shall endure forever : His 
name shall be continued as long as the sun : and men 
shall be blessed in Him : all nations shall call Him 
blessed." 6 .... " But He was wounded for our 
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities ; the 

1 Isa. 42: 1-3. 2 Zech. 9: 9. 

3 Isa. 53: 9. 4 Isa. 53: 7- 

5 Isa. 50: 6. 6 Psa. 72: 12, 14, 17. 



PROPHECY FULFILLED IN CHRIST. 1 95 

chastisement of our peace was upon Him ; and with 
His stripes we are healed." 1 

One reads and rereads and studies these and oth- 
er like prophecies concerning the character, the life 
and work of our Lord with a feeling of wonder to 
see how clearly and forcibly the former points out 
and portrays the latter, and then there is great re- 
joicing in the heart that God has not left us with- 
out abundant evidence of the truth of His Book. 

What is true of the life of Jesus is also true of 
His humiliation, suffering, and death. So many of 
the events connected with the passion week are mi- 
nutely predicted and are all found fulfilled in the 
suffering and death of the Redeemer. His betrayal 
for thirty pieces of silver; His bitter and cruel 
mockery ; His being spit upon ; His inhuman scourg- 
ing ; the piercing of His hands and feet and side; 
the vinegar and gall offered Him on the cross ; the 
parting of His raiment, and casting lots for His out- 
er garment ; His being cut off from His people ; 
His death upon the cross ; the unbroken bones of 
His mangled, broken body ; His burial in the tomb 
of a rich man ; His resurrection from the dead with- 
out His body seeing corruption, — all these were clear- 
ly predicted and literally fulfilled in Christ. 

" The last three verses of the fifty-second, and the 
whole of the fifty-third of Isaiah — written above sev- 

1 Isa. 53: 5. 



I96 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

en hundred years before the Christian era, and form- 
ing, word for word, a part of the Jewish as well as 
the Christian Scriptures — prophetically describe, like 
a very history of the facts, the suffering and death 
of Christ; His rejection by the Jews; His humility, 
His meekness, His affliction, and His agony; how 
His words were disbelieved; how His state was low- 
ly ; how His sorrow was severe ; how His visage and 
form were marred more than the sons of men ; how 
He opened not His mouth but to make intercession 
for the transgressors. In direct opposition to every 
dispensation of Providence, which is registered in the 
records of the Jews, this prophecy represents spotless 
innocence suffering by the appointment of heaven — 
death as the issue of perfect obedience — God's right- 
eous servant as forsaken by Him — and one who was 
perfectly immaculate bearing the chastisement of many 
guilty — sprinkling many nations from their iniquity 
by virtue of His sacrifice — justifying many by His 
knowledge — and dividing a portion with the great, 
and the spoil with the strong, because He had poured 
out His soul unto death." 

Speaking of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, Paley 
says that the material part of every argument from 
prophecy, namely, that the words alleged were ac- 
tually spoken or written before the fact to which they 
applied took place, or could by any natural means 
be foreseen, is, in the present instance, incontestable. 



isaiah's prophecy. 197 

The record comes out of the custody of adversaries. 
The Jews, as an ancient father well observed, are 
our librarians. The passage is in their copies of the 
Scriptures, as well as ours. With many attempts to 
explain it away, none has ever been made by them 
to discredit its authenticity. 

And, what adds force to the quotation is that it 
is taken from the declaredly prophetic part and is 
a writing professing to describe such future trans- 
actions and changes in the world as were connected 
with the fate and interests of the Jewish nation. 
It is not a passage in an historical or devotional com- 
position, which because it turns out to be applicable 
to some future events, or to some future situation 
of affairs, is presumed to have been oracular. The 
words of Isaiah were delivered by him in a prophet- 
ic character, with the solemnity belonging to that 
character; and what he so delivered was all along 
understood by the Jewish reader to refer to some- 
thing that was to take place after the time of the 
author. The public sentiments of the Jews concern- 
ing the design of Isaiah's writings are set forth in 
the book of Ecclesiasticus : 1 " He saw by an excellent 
spirit what should come to pass at the last, and com- 
forted them that mourned in Zion. He showed what 
should come to pass forever, and the secret things 
or ever they came." 2 

1 Eccles. 48: 24, 25. 2 Paley's Evidences, pp. 314, 315. 



I98 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Referring to the prophecies concerning Christ Keith 
says the time determined on the people and on the 
holy city, seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety 
years, passed away. The tribe of Judah were no 
longer united under a king. Banished from their own 
land, and subjected to every oppression, there was 
no more a lawgiver of the tribe of Judah, though 
Judah was he whom his brethren were to serve. Of 
the temple, one stone was not left on another. The 
sacrifice and oblation, which none but priests could 
offer, altogether ceased, when the Jews had no tem- 
ple, nor country, nor priest, nor altar. Ere Jeru- 
salem was destroyed, or desolation had passed over 
the land of Judea, the expectation was universal among 
the Jews that Messiah would appear ; and heathen 
as well as Jewish historians testify of the belief then 
prevalent over the whole East that the ancient proph- 
ecies bore a direct and express reference to that very 
time. 

Why, then, were so many prophecies delivered? 
Why, from the calling of Abraham to the present time, 
have the Jews been separated, as a peculiar people, 
from all the nations of the earth ? Why, from the 
age of Moses to that of Malachi, during a space of 
a thousand years, did a succession of prophets arise, 
all testifying of a Savior to come? Why was the 
book of prophecy sealed for nearly four hundred years 
before, the coming of Christ? Why is there still, to 



SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES. ig$ 

this day, undisputed, if not miraculous, evidence of 
the antiquity of all these prophecies, by their being 
sacredly preserved, in every age, in the custody of 
the enemies of Christianity? Why was such a mul- 
titude of facts foretold that are applicable to Christ, 
and to Him alone? Why? — but that all this mighty 
preparation might usher in the Gospel of righteous- 
ness, and prepare the way for the kingdom of God ; 
and that the Christians also, in every age, to their 
"peace and. joy in believing," might add the perfect 
trust that, however great the promises of God may 
be, they are still sure; and that He who spared not 
His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will with 
Him also, if His we be, freely give us all things. And 
if we ever read a book for any object, ought we not 
to search the Scriptures, to see how clearly they tes- 
tify of Christ? And ought not every word of such 
testimony to be, like all Scripture besides, profitable 
for doctrine and for instruction in righteousness ? Let 
no one any longer refrain from searching the Scrip- 
tures, to see how they testify of Jesus, or from seek- 
ing the words of eternal life which may be found 
in them. Let each one lay to heart the thought that 
the second coming of Christ, to judge the quick and 
the dead, is as certain as that the prophetic tidings 
of His first advent — once heard afar off — have al- 
ready proved true. 



200 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



And as we search the Scriptures and study the 
Word of God we shall find not only the predictions 
of the coming of the Savior of the world, but also 
that in God's own time, in the day of all days, He 
will judge all the nations of the earth, and every 
man shall receive according to the deeds done in the 
body, whether they be good or whether they be evil. 
The absolute certainty of the coming of the judgment 
day should cause men everywhere to repent and pre- 
pare for its coming. And " what shall be said of 
the folly, presumption, recklessness, that pay no heed 
to the prophetic Word of God? That sure Word 
of Prophecy in clear terms foretells, beyond the cer- 
tain day of death, a day when time shall be no longer ; 
when earth shall be wrapped in a winding sheet of 
dissolving flames ; when earth and sea shall give up 
their dead, and the great white throne shall flash 
upon the gaze of countless hosts of our humanity — 
when the books shall be opened, and the dead judged! 
Have you made ready for that day ? In that storm 
whose thunders rend the earth and shake the sky — 
whose floods sweep away the last refuge of lies and 
sin — will your house stand, or fall forever ? " 1 

1 Pierson's " Many Infallible Proofs," p. 47, 



CHAPTER TWELVE. 



The Miracles of the New Testament. 

Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a man approved of God among 
you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him, 
in the midst of you, as you yourselves know. — Acts 2: 22. 

No statements in the New Testament are so well 
attested as are the miracles performed by our Lord. 
The apostle, in the words above quoted, states, in 
an intensified expression, facts so well known that 
his statement bears all the force of a challenge boldly 
given to the multitudes whom he addressed. It is 
as if he had said, Jesus Christ, a man from God, 
shown forth, confirmed and approved as the Messiah 
among you, God placing His seal of approval upon 
Him by working through Him miracles and signs 
and wonders. You were eyewitnesses to these mir- 
acles, for they were not done in a corner, or per- 
formed in secret. In your synagogues, in the streets 
of your cities, on your highways, in your villages and 
in the presence of great multitudes He spake and 
wrought as no other man ever did. In your very 
presence He fed thousands with a morsel of bread 
and meat, and some of you ate at that feast; you 
witnessed the raising of the dead, not only once but 
thrice repeated, you heard the dumb speak and saw 

the eyes of the blind opened, for you cast one out 

201 



202 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



of the synagogue who came seeing ; you know that 
He cleansed the lepers, for they came to you in the 
temple to offer the gifts commanded by Moses for 
their cleansing; you accused Him because on the 
Sabbath day He commanded the impotent man to 
stretch forth his hand and be healed; you rebuked 
the blind Bartimeus when he called upon the Son of 
David to have mercy upon him. You cannot deny 
that He performed these miracles and signs and won- 
ders in your midst. Known are these things among 
you from the rulers of the temple, who condemned 
Him and took Him by wicked hands and crucified 
and slew Him, to the common people who thronged 
Him and heard Him gladly. This bold challenge car- 
ried with it the conviction of truth, and there was 
no dissenting voice; but after hearing the eloquent 
words of the apostle the multitudes cried out : " Men 
and brethren, what shall we do ? " 

As in the days of the apostles, so now we hold 
up the miracles, signs and wonders performed by the 
Son of God as evidence of His divine mission to 
the world, and as proof that God gave Him and 
His words and work the seal of divine approval. 
And not only do miracles attest the truth of the 
teachings of our Lord, but they stand also in the same 
relation to those He selected to be the immediate 
teachers and preachers of His Word. Unto the apos- 
tles was also given the seal of the divine Father's 



MIRACLE DEFINED. 203 

approval : " God also bearing them witness, both with 
signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and 
gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His will." 1 

What is a miracle? A clear and concise definition 
may be found in these words : " An effect in nature 
not attributable to any of the recognized operations 
of nature, nor to any act of man, but indicative of 
superhuman power, and serving as a sign or wit- 
ness thereof ; a wonderful work, manifesting a pow- 
er superior to the ordinary forces of nature." Mira- 
cles are acts and manifestations of God's power in 
the universe which He created, superior to the laws 
and power which govern matter. 

God rules the world by established and uniform 
principles, and these are called the laws of nature. 
They have to do with the physical and moral world. 
The laws of nature are held by the common consent 
of the most enlightened philosophers and scholars to 
be " THE UNIFORM PLAN ACCORDING TO 
WHICH, OR THE UNIFORM MANNER IN 
WHICH, GOD EXERCISES HIS POWER 
THROUGHOUT THE CREATED UNIVERSE." 
In thus ruling by uniform laws the greatest good 
of His creatures is subserved. It sets forth the good- 
ness and wisdom of God, and gives the greatest pos- 
sible blessing to man. Without such laws we would 
live in a world of chance happenings and in a state 

1 Heb. 2: 4. 



204 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



of absolute confusion ; but under the beneficent laws 
of the Creator, summer and winter, seedtime and 
harvest fail not, and the laws He made to govern 
the universe are sure in their operations. 

A miracle is a deviation from an established law 
of nature. If in conducting the affairs of the uni- 
verse God sees fit to deviate from the regular order, 
who shall say nay? Shall the clay say unto the 
potter, " What doest thou ? " According to the law 
of nature when a man dies the body decays and re- 
turns to dust, but He who made the body and breathed 
into it the breath of life can, if He will so to do 
for His own glory and for the good of His creatures, 
divinely interfere with the law He has made and re- 
store such a one to life again, and thus perform a 
miracle. The white leprosy of Palestine is abso- 
lutely incurable by human agencies. The law gov- 
erning the disease has never been set aside ex- 
cept by the interposition of God. This He did 
when He gave the seal of approval to the mis- 
sion of our Lord and through Him set aside the 
« natural law and performed many miracles. Once be- 
lieve there is a God and Creator of all things, and 
the belief in miracles follows as surely as day fol- 
lows night. And it also as surely follows that Je- 
sus was divinely appointed unto His work, for He 
was given the godlike power to set aside the laws 
of nature and work miracles. 



PURPOSE OF MIRACLES. 205 

God's plan in making Himself known to the children 
of men through the Holy Scriptures was to reveal 
Himself to a number of divinely-appointed individuals 
who wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy 
Ghost. What was thus written was then published as 
a revelation from God for the benefit of the world. 
Those who wrote were selected because of their fitness 
and their ability for the work intrusted to their care. 
But while they were men of marked piety 
in the age in which they lived, and of great 
ability, yet they were subject to human limitations, sub- 
ject to temptations, and were of like passions and the 
weaknesses common to their fellows a'nd to humanity. 
While to them the revelation of God came in such a 
form and in such manner as to leave no doubt in their 
mind of its divine origin, how was it to be given to the 
world so that it would be accepted as the revelation of 
God ? Questions of this kind would arise, and the Al- 
mighty gave witness to His Word by giving those who 
declared it the power to work miracles. So in the Old 
Testament He convinced Moses, the author of the Pen- 
tateuch, by setting aside the law governing the action 
of fire so that the burning bush was not consumed. 
To His servants of old He gave this witness in large 
degree, and in the fullness of measure our Lord pos- 
sessed this divine power, and through Him it was con- 
ferred upon His apostles and disciples. In His name 



206 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

they did many wonderful works, commanding the 
lame to walk and the dead to rise. 

The evidence thus given as a seal to the revelation of 
God is to be accepted as necessary to convince men 
that the Book is of God. It is our right, even our duty, 
to ask for evidence. The revelation, in order to be of 
use to us, as it is to those who receive it directly from 
God, must not only be declared by them to us, but must 
have divine attestation. In other words, those who de- 
clare it to us must show, by some incontestable proof, 
that it is from God. Such proof is found in a miracle. 
If an event takes place which we know to be contrary 
to the laws of nature, we at once recognize it as the 
special act of Him who is the God of nature, and who 
alone can suspend its laws, and produce effects in an- 
other way. The evidence of a direct interposition of 
God given in this way is irresistible. No man, no in- 
fidel, could witness an obvious miracle without being 
struck with awe and recognizing the finger of God. 

It is clear that no event, which can be accounted for 
on natural principles, can prove a supernatural inter- 
position, or contain a divine attestation to the truth of 
a prophet's claim. But when we look at an event 
which cannot be traced to the laws of nature, and is 
clearly above them, such as the burning wood upon the 
altar in the case of Elijah's controversy with the false 
prophets, or the resurrection of, Lazarus, we cannot 



paley' s answer to hume. 207 

avoid the conviction that the Lord of heaven and earth 
does, by such miracle, give His testimony that Elijah 
is His prophet and that Jesus of Nazareth is the Mes- 
siah. The evidence arising from miracles is so strik- 
ing and conclusive that there is no way for the infidel 
to evade it, but to deny the existence of miracles, and 
to hold that all the .events called miraculous may be ac- 
counted for according to the laws of nature. 1 

The argument of Hume, the able English historian 
and the bitter foe of the Christian religion, arrays uni- 
form experience against the credibility of miracles. 
Campbell, Paley and many others have abundantly 
shown the shallow sophistry of the argument, which 
resolves itself into a question as to whether it be more 
improbable that the miracle be true, or the testimony 
false, and Paley meets his sophistry in this way: 
When a theorem is proposed to a mathematician, the 
first thing he does with it is to try a simple case, and 
if it produce a false result, he is sure there must be 
some mistake in the demonstration. Now, to proceed 
in the same way with what may be called Mr. Hume's 
theorem. If twelve men, whose probity and good 
sense I had long known, should seriously and circum- 
stantially relate to me an account of a miracle wrought 
before their eyes, and in which it was impossible that 
they should be deceived; if the governor of the coun- 
try, hearing a rumor of this account, should call these 

1 See Bible Encyclopedia, p. 1168. 



208 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



men into his presence, and offer them a short proposal, 
either to confess the imposture, or submit to be tied to 
a gibbet; if they should refuse with one voice to ac- 
knowledge that there existed any falsehood or impos- 
ture in the case; if this threat were communicated to 
them separately, yet with no different effect ; if it was 
at last executed ; if I myself saw ,them, one after an- 
other, consenting to be racked, burnt, or strangled, 
rather than give up the truth of their account; — still, 
if Mr. Hume's rule be my guide, I am not to believe 
them. Now I undertake to say that there exists not a 
skeptic in the world who would not believe them, or 
who would defend such credulity. 1 , 

Another writer inquires as to what Hume means by 
human experience and asks, Does he mean his own 
experience? But because he has never witnessed a 
miracle, does it follow that others have not? Does he 
mean the uniform experience of the greater part of 
mankind ? But how does he know that the experience 
of a smaller part has not been different from that of the 
greater part? Does he mean, then, the uniform ex- 
perience of all mankind in all ages ? How, then, does 
the argument stand? He undertakes to prove that 
no man has ever witnessed or experienced a miracle, 
and his real argument is that no one has ever witnessed 
or experienced it. In other words, to prove that there 

1 See Paley's Evidences. 



THE MIRACLES GENUINE. 20Q 

never has been a miracle, he asserts that there never has 
been a miracle. This is the nature of his argument — 
an instance of begging the question, to which a man of 
Hume's logical mind would never have resorted, had 
it not been for his enmity to religion. 1 

The genuineness of the miracles admits of not a 
single doubt. As already intimated, they were per- 
formed in the most public manner, in the very 
presence of the enemies of those who per- 
formed them, and before a multitude of witnesses. 
There was the total absence of the accessories in com- 
mon use among jugglers and sleight of hand perform- 
ers. In the presence of many Jews and of the heart- 
broken sisters of Lazarus, Christ called him forth from 
the tomb after decay had already taken place. In the 
presence of a large number of men of unquestionable 
honesty and intelligence the miracles were performed, 
and as set forth by Paley they constantly affirmed that 
they were eyewitnesses to these things. And some of 
these witnesses wrote and published histories of the 
facts, in the places where the miracles were performed 
and near the time when they occurred. In these his- 
tories it was openly asserted that the miracles, as de- 
scribed, were publicly known and acknowledged to 
have taken place ; and this statement no one took upon 
himself to contradict or question. Moreover, many 
persons who stood forth as witnesses of these miracles 

1 Paley's Evidences, pp. n, 12. 



210 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

passed their lives in labors, dangers, and sufferings, in 
attestation of the accounts they delivered, and solely 
in consequence of their belief in the truth of those ac- 
counts ; and, from the same motive, they voluntarily 
submitted to new rules of conduct ; while nothing like 
this is true respecting any other pretended miracles. 1 
A large number of these witnesses sealed their faith, 
in the facts stated by them, with their blood. They 
endured the greatest sufferings imaginable and count- 
ed it all joy when they were beaten and endured suf- 
fering in the name of their Master. They were be- 
headed, crucified, led to the stake and were thrown to 
wild beasts, all of which they might have escaped by 
retracting their faith in the teaching of Christ and 
their belief in the miracles performed by Him. The 
world does not afford another example of the stead- 
fast faith of these early believers and witnesses in the 
testimony they bore. 

After the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ had 
been taught and the doctrines of the Christian religion 
fully set forth, the miraculous dispensation came to a 
close. The exact time when the power to work mir- 
acles, which belonged pre-eminently to Christ and 
through Him to His apostles, disciples, and the apostol- 
ic church, ceased, cannot be definitely stated. After 
the church and her divinely-appointed institutions and 

1 The Bible Encyclopedia, p. 1108. 



THE PURPOSE OF MIRACLES. 



211 



her sacred ordinances had been fully established — and 
this seems to have been God's purpose in giving to 
men the power to work miracles — these gradually 
ceased, and there is no satisfactory evidence that any 
have occurred since that time. 



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MIRACLES IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 



MIRACLES 

Outpouring of Holy Ghost on Pentecost. 

Miracles by the Apostles 

Lame Man Healed 

Death of Ananias andSapphira 

Miracles by Stephen 

Miracles by Philip 

yEneas Made Whole 

Dorcas Restored to Life 

Peter Delivered from Prison 

Elymas Struck Blind 

Miracles by Paul and Barnabas 

Lame Man Cured 

Paul Restored 

Unclean Spirits Cast Out 

Paul and Silas Delivered from Prison. . . . 

Special Miracles 

Eutychus Restored to Life 

Paul Unhurt by a Viper 

Father of Publius and many others Healed 



Jerusalem 
Jerusalem 
Jerusalem 
Jerusalem 
Jerusalem 
Samaria .. 
Lydda — 

Joppa 

Jerusalem 
Paphos . . . 
Iconium .. 
Lystra — 
Lystra — 
Philippi .. 
Philippi .. 
Ephesus.. 

Troas 

Melita .... 
Melita 



Acts 



. . . Acts 2: 1-11 
2: 43; 5: 12, 15 

Acts 3: 7 

Acts 5: 1-10 

Acts: 6: 8 

Acts 8: 6, 7, 13 

Acts 9: 34 

Acts 9: 40 

.. Acts 12: 6-10 

Acts 13: 11 

Acts 14: 3 

Acts 14: 10 

Acts 14: 20 

.... Acts 16: 18 
.Acts 16: 25, 26 
.Acts 19: 11, 12 
. Acts 20: 10-12 

Acts 28: 5 

.. .Acts 28: 8, 9 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN. 



The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also re- 
ceived, how that Christ died for our sins according to the 
Scriptures ; and that He zvas buried, and that He rose again 
the third day . . . For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ 
raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye 
are yet in your sins. Then they also which are asleep in 
Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in 
Christ, we are of all men most miserable. — / Cor. 15: 3, 4, 
16-19. 

When Jesus Christ died on the cross His follow- 
ers, even the faithful few, gave up in despair and 
fled in hopeless dismay. Their expectations, ex- 
pressed in the hopeful words of Cleopas and his com- 
panion as they walked toward Emmaus and were 
sad, " But we trusted that it had been He which 
should have redeemed Israel," 1 were blasted, their 
hopes were dead. He in whom they had trusted 
and for whom they had left all and followed faith- 
fully for the three years of His ministry, He whom 
they loved, and in whom they had hoped, with a 
certainty born of strong desire, to see the tempo- 
ral redemption of Israel an accomplished fact, was 
dead. The terrible end had come and all was over, 

1 Luke 24: 21. 2i5 



2l6 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



and with a crushing sense of defeat, and with sad, 
sorrowful hearts, these poor toilers, disappointed and 
cast down, were ready to go back again to boats and 
nets and take up the vocations of life which three 
short years before they had gladly abandoned to fol- 
low the Master. Among them there was no contest 
now as to who should be greatest in His king- 
dom, or as to who was to have the place of honor 
when the Lord sat upon His throne. Their King 
was dead. He had been taken by wicked men, nailed 
to the cross like a common criminal and had died 
among transgressors. Was this the consummation for 
which they had toiled, and labored, and hoped? No 
wonder their high hopes fled and in their place came 
the darkness of despair. It is true that Jesus had 
told them of His coming death, and that His king- 
dom was not of this world, but from above, but 
they did not take these words into conscious ac- 
ceptance. To them the Messiah was to be a tem- 
poral king who was to restore again in all its glo- 
ry the throne of David. Israel was to be free from 
the yoke of Roman bondage and to be great among 
the nations of the earth. And now their King was 
dead. 

The days immediately following the cruel death of 
Christ on the cross must have been dark and gloomy 
for His disciples. The future, at one time so bright 
and promising, so big with the hope of the resto- 



IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION. 21 7 

ration of Israel to her proud place among the na- 
tions of the earth, was now so dark and without a 
single ray of light. A sense of crushing defeat and 
overwhelming sorrow oppressed them. *The last 
words on the cross, " It is finished," words fraught 
with such glorious meaning to the whole human race, 
sounded the death knell to all their hopes. Even be- 
fore this, when they realized that their Leader was 
in the hands of His cruel enemies and that His death 
was sure to follow, they all deserted Him and fled 
in dismay. Peter the bold, who, but a few brief hours 
before, had asserted, with all the fervor of his im- 
pulsive nature, that he would never forsake Him 
and that he was ready to die for Him, fell before 
the glance of a little maid and with bitter oaths 
denied His Lord. Even John the beloved forsook 
Him, to return later and with a few faithful women 
witness the death agony upon the cross. 

Had the death of Jesus been the end of the sto- 
ry of His life, then at the cross would have ended, 
not only the hopes of His scattered, discouraged dis- 
ciples, but of the whole world. But the greatest of 
all His miracles was yet to be performed, the crown- 
ing event of the plan of salvation was yet to take 
place. While redemption was purchased on the cross, 
and the fountain of salvation was opened in the blood 
that flowed from hands, and feet, and side, yet the 
last enenry, death, was to be overcome, victory was 



218 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



to be wrested from the grave and the sting plucked 
from death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ was 
to become, not only the greatest of all His miracles, 
not only the central truth of Christianity, but its very 
foundation in the sense that belief in the fact that 
He rose from the dead gave renewed life and vitality to 
the dispersed church. What was it that brought to- 
gether again the dismayed, heartbroken little group 
of disciples? What was it that renewed their con- 
fidence, faith and trust in the teaching of Jesus, who, 
only three days before, had been put to death ? What 
was it that gave new life and vitality to the cause 
for which its Founder had died? It was not the 
death on the cross, for that had destroyed all their 
hopes, but it was the bursting of the bars of death, 
the resurrection from the dead which brought the dis- 
heartened few together again. 

To their unswerving faith in the resurrection of 
the Master, to which they clung with a perti- 
nacity that precluded all possibility of doubt on their 
part, — clung, when it brought upon them the most 
bitter persecution, the most cruel torture, and even 
the martyr's death, — must be attributed the renewed 
life and vitality, in what, but a few days before, 
was to these same men and women a hopelessly lost 
cause. No new leader had sprung up amongst them 
to re-inspire their hope in the dead Christ; yet even 
before the blood stains were washed from the brow 



IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION. 2IO, 

of Calvary the dispersed disciples were brought to- 
gether again, animated by a new and glorious hope, 
and inspired by a full belief and unshaken confi- 
dence in the divinity of their risen Lord. They had 
seen Him, handled Him, had seen His wounded hands 
and feet and His pierced side, had heard Him speak, 
had eaten with Him, received from Him words of com- 
fort and consolation, and had finally, with their own 
eyes, seen Him ascend into heaven. From this time 
on there was no more doubt, no more denials, no 
more hesitation, no more fleeing. There was in place 
of vacillation grand resolve, born of the absolute cer- 
tainty of faith, to do and to die for the cause of 
the risen Christ, and nobly and heroically was this 
resolve carried into execution. 

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not only the 
greatest miracle of the Bible and the central truth 
of the Christian religion, but it stands as the su- 
preme test of the truth and divine character of Chris- 
tianity. If He rose not from the dead, then is the 
Christian religion without hope of the future, and the 
entire fabric falls to the ground. The truth and im- 
portance of this statement were fully recognized by 
the apostle Paul when he said : " If Christ be not 
raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins." 
And again : " If in this life only we have hope in 
Christ, we are of all men most miserable." He also 
tells us that if there be no resurrection, they which 



220 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



have fallen asleep in Christ, with the hope of com- 
ing forth again from the grave, are perished. Had 
there been no resurrection, there had been no Chris- 
tianity. Had Jesus Christ not risen from the dead, 
there had been no Christian church. Had the tomb 
been able to hold the crucified Redeemer, then would 
the world be without hope of eternal life. His com- 
ing forth from the grave, as the Holy Scriptures 
teach, and according to His own words, is a fitting 
consummation to all His teaching, to all His mir- 
acles, and a necessary complement to the plan of 
salvation, showing without the least shadow of a 
doubt that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 

The importance of the resurrection of Christ is 
recognized by all unbelievers, and it has been most 
bitterly attacked by infidels. They well know that 
if the resurrection of Jesus be admitted as a fact, 
all controversy as to His divine character and as 
to His mission to the world is at an end. While 
they admit that Christ was a great teacher, that 
His life was pure and holy, that His teaching was 
far above the average of human thought, that He 
was crucified by His enemies, because His teach- 
ings condemned their sins, they deny His divine 
nature and say He did not rise from the dead. In 
view of this denial it becomes our duty to look care- 
fully to the testimony and examine the character 
of the witnesses and the arguments showing that 



EVIDENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 221 

Jesus did rise from the dead. Before examining 
the witnesses the following argument is given be- 
cause it naturally falls in place at this point : 

The existence of the Christian church in the world 
to-day is positive evidence that Jesus Christ lived, 
taught, zvas crucified and rose from the dead. 

All existing governments, religions, associations, 
societies and organizations were founded at some 
time by some person, or persons, to meet a real 
or supposed want, and their existence is the most 
positive proof that they were founded. 

The annual celebration of the Fourth of July in 
this country is the very strongest evidence that 
the Declaration of Independence was formally an- 
nounced and published on that day at some previ- 
ous time. No one living to-day can testify from 
personal knowledge that the American Colonies did 
declare themselves free and independent, but the 
existence of the government and a continuous line 
of historical facts reaching back to its founding, 
with the celebration of the Fourth of July, with its 
superabundance of effervescent patriotism, give 
proof positive of the establishment of the govern- 
ment, and that on the Fourth of July, 1776, the 
Declaration of Independence was made. No one 
with ordinary reason will deny the force of this 
evidence, and if the United States should exist two 



222 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



thousand years the proof would lose none of its 
force. 

The existence in the world to-day of a large body 
of people known as Mohammedans is unmistakable 
evidence that Mohammed lived and taught and 
founded his society. Had there been no Moham- 
med, no Mecca, no Medina, there would be no Mo- 
hammedans. 

The rite of the Jewish passover, kept alive among 
orthodox Israelites for more than three thousand 
years, is proof of the most positive character that 
the institution of the Jewish passover, as described 
in the Bible, marks the deliverance of the Israelites 
from Egyptian bondage. As unerringly as the 
celebration of the Fourth of July points to the 
Declaration of Independence, as certainly as the 
Mohammedans point to Mecca and to Mohammed, 
so unerringly and surely does the Jewish passover, 
and the Jews as a people, with the intervening his- 
tory, point to the deliverance from Egyptian bond- 
age. 

With the foregoing illustrations in mind, apply 
them to Christianity. The church asserts to-day, 
as it always has asserted since its foundation, that 
" the sole cause of its renewed life was not that 
its followers found a new leader, but that they be- 
lieved that Jesus Christ rose from the dead." This 
belief, founded on what they witnessed themselves, 



TESTIMONY OF THE FOUR EVANGELISTS. 223 

became the foundation on which the disciples re- 
constituted the society. And the Christian church 
to-day., with its intervening history carrying us 

back to the very days of the life and death of its 
Founder, gives the most positive proof of the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To doubt 
this is to doubt all history and doubt one's own 
senses and reason. 

Now to the testimony and the character of the wit- 
nesses. The four evangelists all give minute and 
detailed accounts of the particulars connected with 
the great event. It is true that in a few unimport- 
ant, minor details they differ ; but this, instead of 
weakening their testimony, adds strength to it. It 
shows most conclusively that there was no collu- 
sion among the witnesses. If the four had met, 
planned their testimony, determining what each 
should write, there would doubtless have been 
closer agreement as to what was written, but the 
fact stands out prominently that each wrote with- 
out the knowledge of the others, and wrote simply 
and naturally, as one narrates and writes who has 
the truth to tell. Each one wrote what he had 
seen or heard, from his own point of view. Here 
we have no made-up story, no plan to palm off on 
the people a fraud, but the plain, simple statement 
of pious, godly men. Our four witnesses were 
men of simple, godly lives. They had known Christ 



224 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

intimately from the beginning of his ministry, and 
were either apostles or were the close companions 
and associates of the Twelve. They had the very 
best possible opportunities of seeing and knowing 
the things whereof they testified. They bore wit- 
ness to the resurrection of Christ from the fullness 
of personal knowledge. 

Those who deny the resurrection of Christ find 
themselves confronted with the task of meeting 
the testimony of these witnesses and of setting 
aside the following difficulties. They ask us to be- 
lieve that the four evangelists, with the apostle 
Paul, and more than five hundred witnesses bore 
false testimony. We are asked to believe that the 
apostles invented the whole system of doctrines, 
based upon the resurrection of Christ, and that 
they went about the world proclaiming this as es- 
sential to the salvation of men, appealing to God, 
in the most solemn manner, to sanction the false- 
hood, and willing to endure persecution, and to 
lay down life itself, in attestation of a lie. We 
are further to believe that they taught this fabu- 
lous story so connectedly and harmoniously that 
their followers never detected any disagreement, 
or suspected them of having invented it. Though 
Peter and Paul and James are recorded to have 
differed on ceremonial questions, and to have had 
sharp disputes, yet we are to believe that they 



TESTIMONY OF ALL BELIEVERS. 225 

never suffered a hint to escape them, in one un- 
guarded moment, that their story of the resurrec- 
tion was a myth ; nay, that they kept the secret so 
well during their whole lives that a great multi- 
tude of believers, in all parts of the world, received 
it as the corner stone of their religion, many of 
whom suffered and died for it, and not one of whom 
we know ever doubted it; and the unknown mil- 
lions of believers who have followed have all shared 
this delusion, lived in the belief that the risen Sav- 
ior was at God's right hand, and had given them 
in His resurrection a pledge that they would like- 
wise rise from their graves. 1 How much more 
logical and reasonable is it to believe our witnesses 
than to accept this impossible hypothesis. 

It may seem like a repetition again to call atten- 
tion to the fact that not only the four evangelists, 
who record the details concerning the resurrection 
of our Lord, but all the apostles and disciples be- 
lieved, with an unwavering faith that knew no 
doubting, that their beloved Master rose from the 
dead. Men and women do not voluntarily suffer 
as these suffered for mere opinion's sake. Men 
and women do not forsake father and mother, home 
and country, houses and land and all they possess 
in this world and endure privation and want, perse- 
cution and imprisonment, torture and death for a 

1 " Credibility of the Christian Religion," pp. 72, 73. 



226 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



falsehood. No stronger evidence of their positive 
belief, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and 
that He rose from the dead, could be given than 
was given by hundreds and thousands of primitive 
Christians who sealed their faith with their blood. 

The next witness to be examined is a most im- 
portant one, and if there were no other testimony 
extant as to the fact of the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, we might take four of the letters written 
by our witness and prove without the shadow of 
a doubt that within thirty years after the event 
occurred it was accepted as the central truth of the 
Christian religion and that it was universally ac- 
cepted by all the churches. The letters referred 
to are Paul's epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, 
and Galatians. Prebendary Row of London in his 
" Historical Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus 
Christ " bases his entire argument, a synopsis ot 
which is here given, on these four letters and makes 
out the strongest possible case. 

It has often been objected by unbelievers that 
we have no contemporaneous historical evidence of 
the resurrection as claimed by the four evangelists. 
But this is a mistake. We are in possession of 
letters written by one who was both a contempo- 
rary and also the most active agent in founding 
the Christian church. Now contemporary letters 
of this kind are admitted by all modern historians 



IMPORTANCE OF PAUl/s LETTERS. 227 

to be the most valuable of all historical documents. 
They are continually hunting them up in every di- 
rection as the best means of throwing a clear light 
on the history of the past. They are far more val- 
uable as a means of discriminating truth from false- 
hood than formal histories, even when composed by 
historians who lived at the time the events oc- 
curred. Such are frequently written under strong 
bias, but the incidental allusions in letters frequent- 
ly put us in possession of facts and motives which 
have been carefully concealed from the world. This 
is especially the case in confidential letters between 
friends. 

It is therefore impossible to overestimate the im- 
portance of the concession made to us by the 
learned critical unbelievers of modern times, that 
beyond all question of doubt we are in possession 
of documents of this description, carrying us back 
to the earliest days of Christianity. The latest 
date which can be assigned to them is twenty-eight 
years after the crucifixion. These letters put us 
in direct communication with the thoughts of the 
most active missionary of the infant church, and of 
those to whom the letters were addressed. Their 
character is such that they present us with an entire 
picture of the man who wrote them — what he did, 
what he thought, what he believed — with a fresh- 
ness and vigor scarcely to be found in any other 



22§" 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



letters in existence. By their means we can hold 
direct communication with their author, and al- 
most put him into the witness box. They depict 
him as he lived, thought, moved; and they render 
it indisputable that he was a man of the most un- 
impeachable veracity. It is of no little conse- 
quence, then, that these letters are admitted by 
all to be genuine. 

The attention of the reader is now called to the 
fact that these four letters of St. Paul were written 
within that interval of time after the date of the 
crucifixion that comes within the period of the most 
perfect historical recollection. Not only were they 
written within twenty-eight years of the cruci- 
fixion by one whose activity as a missionary of 
Christianity had extended over the preceding twen- 
ty years, but lie was then of suck an age that his 
historical recollections were good for at least -fif- 
teen years earlier. Although he had not seen Jesus 
Christ before His crucifixion, he must have con- 
versed with multitudes who had done so and had 
heard Him teach. In these letters, therefore, we 
are in possession of a contemporaneous record of 
the highest order and of the greatest value. 

Let us test, by our own practical experience, the 
value of historical recollections that are only twen- 
ty-eight years old. This period of time is twelve 
years less than the interval which separates the 



IMPORTANCE OF PAUl/s TESTIMONY. 229 

present year, 1902, from the stirring events of the 
civil war in the United States. Our recollections 
of those events are so fresh and lively that it is 
simply impossible that we could become a prey 
to a number of legendary stories respecting them. 
Such stories can only grow up after considerable 
intervals of time, when the recollection of events 
has lost its freshness, and the generation which 
lias witnessed them has died out. Let it then be 
impressed upon the reader that Paul, when he 
wrote his epistles, was separated from the cruci- 
fixion by an interval of time not so great as that 
which separates us from the civil war. 

The time of St. Paul's conversion is fixed by all 
parties as occurring between the dates A. D. 34 and 40. 
He therefore had the amplest means of knowing what 
was the belief of the Christians at this early period, 
and must not only have had the most positive cer- 
tainty respecting what it was on which the renewed 
prosperity of the church rested, but he could not 
have failed to know that his primitive followers 
also ascribed a number of superhuman actions to 
our Lord. Nor was this all. For some time previ- 
ous to his conversion he acted the part of a fierce 
persecutor of the church. This fact we learn from 
his own pen. In acting this part, common sense 
would have suggested to him the necessity of 
minutely scrutinizing the tenets of the new society, 



23O THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

and, above all, of investigating with the utmost 
care the foundation on which it rested : namely, the 
alleged resurrection of its Founder. He must 
therefore have been fully cognizant of the beliefs of 
the church in connection with this event, and as a 
vehement opponent he must have done his utmost 
to expose any delusion respecting it. 

The epistles make it certain that Paul did not 
only believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
as an historical fact, but that he considered it as 
the foundation on which the life of the revived 
Christian community was based. To the resurrec- 
tion he refers many times, so many times that not 
all can be quoted. In the text at the head of this 
chapter he expressly asserts that if the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ is not a fact, Christianity is a de- 
lusion. 

His mode of reference to this event proves that 
he not only believed in it as a fact, but that he did 
not entertain the smallest doubt that those to whom 
he wrote believed it as firmly as himself. He refers 
to it in the most direct terms and in the most in- 
cidental manner as the foundation of the common 
faith both of himself and of those to whom he 
wrote. He evidently calculated that they would 
receive his statements respecting it without the 
rmallest hesitation. Now nothing is more valuable 
than incidental references such as these to an event. 



INCIDENTAL REFERENCES. 23 1 

They prove that the writer, and those to whom he 
writes, know all about it, and have a common be- 
lief respecting it. Notice how this is exemplified 
in the ordinary letters which we write. When we 
know that our correspondent is fully acquainted with 
an occurrence we simply allude to it, without en- 
tering into a formal description of it ; and we feel 
sure that our view of the fact is accepted by him. 
Such is the manner in which Paul refers to the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ throughout these let- 
ters, with the exception of First Corinthians 15 and 
Galatians 1 and 2, where his reference is for pur- 
poses directly historical and controversial. 

It should be observed that differences of opinion 
obtained among the members of the Corinthian 
church, and that these differences resulted in pai- 
tyism. There was a party for Paul, one for Peter 
and another for Apollos. Paul refers to this spirit 
of division among them and rebukes it ; but while 
this is true it is also clear that the apostle and 
those who differed from him agreed as to the truth 
of the resurrection. About this there was no dif- 
ference of opinion. 

The evidence furnished in the epistle to the Gala- 
tians is also most conclusive in its character. In 
this church there were those who had departed 
from the teaching of Paul so far that he calls their 
doctrines by the name cf " a different gospel/' This 



232 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

party had drawn some away from the truth. No 
one can read this letter without seeing that the 
state of things in this church had touched him to 
the quick. It is full of deep bursts of feeling; yet 
the whole epistle is written with the most absolute 
confidence that, however great were the differences 
between his opponents and himself, there was no 
diversity of opinion between them that the belief 
in the resurrection of Jesus was the foundation 
stone of their common Christianity. Hear his words 
at the beginning of the letter: "Paul, an apostle 
not from men, neither through men, but through 
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him 
from the dead, and all the brethren which are with 
me, unto the churches of Galatia. I marvel that 
ye are so quickly removing from Him that called 
you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel, 
which is not another gospel ; only there are some 
who trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of 
Christ." 1 

If Paul's belief and that of his opposers in Ga- 
latia had not been in complete accord on the doc- 
trine of the resurrection, no man in his senses 
would have thrown doAvn such a challenge as that 
which is contained in these words, and also in terms 
equally as strong throughout the entire epistle. 

But the evidence which is furnished in the epistle 

1 Revised Version. 



LETTERS TO GALATTANS AND ROMANS. 233 

to the Galatians also brings in the testimony of 
the churches at Jerusalem and at Antioch, the one 
the center of Jewish, the other of Gentile Chris- 
tianity. Paul's opponents at Galatia were Juda- 
izing Christians, who professed to be the followers 
of Peter and James. In the second chapter of the 
letter Paul asserts that his teaching was in sub- 
stantial harmony with that of these two great chiefs 
of the Jewish church. It follows, therefore, as 
their professed adherents concurred with him in 
believing that the resurrection was a fact, that 
these two apostles must have been persuaded that 
they themselves had seen their risen Lord, and 
that the whole Jewish church must have concurred 
with them in this belief. This same chapter also 
makes it certain that the entire church at Antioch 
did the same at the period when Peter and Paul 
jointly visited it, and involves also the fact of 
Peter's direct testimony to the truth of the resur- 
rection. This proves beyond all doubt that the 
belief in the resurrection was coincident with the 
renewed life of the Christian church immediately 
after the crucifixion. 

The evidence afforded by the epistle to the Ro- 
mans is no less important than that which has 
already been noticed. If it be urged that Paul 
founded the churches at Corinth and Galatia, and 
that even his opponents would have accepted his 



234 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

views on this point, the church at Rome was one 
he had neither founded nor visited at the time he 
wrote. It had been in existence several years be- 
fore he wrote his letter to them ; and it was a 
church so large and important that he felt that he 
w r as in no danger of being misapprehended when he 
said that "their faith was a subject of conversa- 
tion throughout the whole world/' It contained 
a large Jewish element ; and from the number of 
strangers who visited the imperial city there can 
be no doubt that among its members must have 
been representatives of every variety of Christian 
thought. Yet he addressed the church with the 
fullest confidence that its members held the same 
views as himself respecting the resurrection. This 
is set forth in the opening words of the epistle: 
" And declared to be the Son of God with power, 
according to the spirit of holiness, by the resur- 
rection from the dead ; " 1 and the same truth per- 
meates the entire contents of the epistle. 

In the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians Paul 
makes a definite statement as to the number of 
those who had seen the risen Savior. At one time 
more than five hundred had seen Him, and of these 
more than half were alive when he wrote the letter. 
Now, consider how, in making this assertion, he 
must have put himself in the hands of his opponents 

1 Rom. i : 4. 



SUMMARY OF PROOF. 235 

if this fact was not generally admitted to be true. 
They might have put an end to his reasoning then 
and there by simply exposing the falsity of such 
a statement. The attempt of unbelievers to escape 
the force of this fact by saying that the apostle 
was careless of inquiry into the truth of such sto- 
ries is here quite beyond the mark, for they forget 
that it was made in the presence of those who 
would have been only too eager to expose a mis- 
statement if they had been able. But if these five 
hundred persons really believed they had seen Jesus 
Christ alive after the crucifixion, how is it possible 
to account for so singular a fact otherwise than on 
the assumption of its truth ? 

The points here proven may be summed up as 
follows : 

1. That within less than twenty-eight years after 
the crucifixion the entire Christian church, without 
distinction of party, believed that the one sole 
ground of its existence was the fact that Jesus 
Christ had risen from the dead. 

2. That at that period there were more than two 
hundred and fifty persons living who believed that 
they had seen Him alive after His crucifixion. 

3. That the belief in the resurrection was held in 
common by Paul and his most violent opponents. 

4. That it is an unquestionable fact that the en- 
tire Christian church believed in the resurrection 



236 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

of its Founder, as an essential ground of its exist- 
ence, within six or seven years after the date of His 
crucifixion. 

5. That at least three of the apostles asserted that 
they had seen Jesus Christ alive after His death. 

6. That within a few months after His cruci- 
fixion the church must have been reconstructed on 
the foundation of the belief that its crucified Mes- 
siah had been raised from the dead. I say a few 
months, because if the interval had been longer 
while the belief was growing, the church must have 
perished in its Founder's grave. 1 

The witnesses have been examined and the tes- 
timony is sure. There can be but one verdict from 
the unprejudiced mind, and that verdict must be 
that Jesus Christ the Son of God rose from the 
dead. Before closing this chapter with words 
placed in the mouth of one of our witnesses when 
he stood before the Romans ready to be offered, 
attention is called to an argument used by the 
author of " Credibility of the Christian Religion." 
He refers to the fact that the gospel narratives all 
record the resurrection in a way that reflects dis- 
credit on the apostles themselves. They are rep- 
resented as having received from Christ Himself 
in His lifetime several intimations of His approach- 
ing death and resurrection, and yet when He was 

1 " Historical Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ." 



TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES. 237 

betrayed they all forsook Him and fled; and Peter, 
His boldest follower, denied Him thrice with oaths : 
and so entirely did they lose confidence in Him that 
when He rose from the grave they were utterly 
incredulous, and refused to believe till Christ had 
shown Himself to them several times in the most- 
unmistakable manner. How came it that the apos- 
tles allowed such a discreditable version to get 
afloat if the whole affair was a concoction of their 
own? Was ever such absurdity known as a body 
of men inventing a stupendous fiction, and then 
narrating it so as to mortify their self-esteem in 
the most poignant manner? Had they narrated the 
resurrection in such a way as to set forth their 
own glory, or secure some earthly advantage for 
themselves, it might have been maintained with 
some show of reason that they had conspired to de- 
lude the world ; but that they should have invented 
a falsehood and told it in such a way as to bring 
humiliation upon themselves, and submitted to be 
treated as the offscourings of the earth all the rest 
of their lives, simply to hoax mankind, is a theory 
so preposterous that we marvel any man should 
hold it who has not parted company with his rea- 
son or his conscience. 

When Paul the aged stood before the Romans 
ready to be offered for his faith in the Lord Jesus 



238 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Christ and in His resurrection from the dead, these 
words might have been his : 

" Do I stand here demanding to be believed for 
opinions? No, but for facts. I have seen the sick- 
made whole, the lame walk, the blind receive their 
sight, by the mere name of Him whom you cruci- 
fied. I have seen men, once ignorant of all lan- 
guages but their own, speaking with the language 
of every nation under heaven : the still greater won- 
der of the timid defying all fear, the unlearned in- 
stantly made wise in the mysteries of all things 
divine and human, the peasant putting to shame 
the learned, awing the proud, enlightening the 
darkened : alike in the courts of kings, before the 
furious people, and in the dungeon, armed with 
an irrepressible spirit of knowledge, reason, and 
truth that confounded their adversaries. I have 
seen the still greater wonder of the renewed heart: 
the impure suddenly abjuring vice; the covetous, 
the cruel, the faithless, the godless, gloriously 
changed into the holy, the gentle, the faithful, wor- 
shipers of the true God in spirit and in truth — the 
conquest of the passions which defied your philoso- 
phers, your tribunals, your rewards, and your ter- 
rors, achieved in the one mighty name. Those are 
facts, things which I have seen with these eyes; 
and who that had seen them could doubt that the 
finger of God was there? Dared I refuse my be- 



PAUL'S TESTIMONY. 239 

lief to the divine mission of the Being by whom, 
and even in memory of whom, things baffling the 
proudest human means were wrought .before my 
senses? Irresistibly compelled by facts to believe 
that Christ was sent by God, I was with equal 
• force compelled to believe in the doctrines declared 
by that glorious revealer of the King alike of quick 
and dead. And thus I stand before you this day, 
at the close of a long life of labor and love, a Chris- 
tian. 

" Men may be insane for opinions, but w T ho can 
be insane for facts? The coming of Christ w r a? 
prophesied a thousand years before! From the 
beginning of His ministry, He lived wholly before 
the eyes of mankind. His life corresponds with 
the prophecies in circumstances totally beyond hu- 
man conjecture, contrivance, or pow T er. The Vir- 
gin Mother, the village in which He was born, the 
lowliness of His cradle, the worship paid to Him 
there, the hazard of His life — all w^ere predicted. 
Could the infant have shaped the accomplishment 
of those predictions? The death that He should 
die, the hands by which it was to be inflicted, even 
the draught that He should drink, the raiment that 
He should be clothed in, and the sepulcher in which 
He should be laid, were predicted. Could the man 
have shaped their accomplishment? The time of 
His resting in the tomb, His resurrection, His 



240 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

ascent to heaven, the sending of the Holy Spirit 
after He was gone — all were predicted ; all were 
beyond human collusion, human power, even be- 
yond human thought ! All were accomplished ! Is 
not here the ringer of God? 

" Those things, too, were universally known to 
the nation most competent to detect collusion. Did 
Christ come to Rome, where every new religion 
finds adherents, and where all pretensions might 
be advanced without fear; where a deceiver might 
have quoted prophecies that never existed, and 
vaunted of wonders done where there was no eye 
to detect them ? No ! His life was spent in Judea. 
He made His appeal to the Scriptures in a country 
where they were in the hands of a nation opposed 
to Him. His miracles were wrought before the 
eyes of a priesthood that watched Him step by 
step, His doctrines were spoken, not to the min- 
gled multitude holding a thousand varieties of 
opinion, and careless of all, but to an exclusive 
race, subtle in their inquiries, eager in their zeal, 
and proud of their peculiar possession of divine 
knowledge. 

" Yet against His life, His miracles, or His doc- 
trine, what charge could they bring? None. There 
is not a single stigma on the purity of His con- 
duct ; the power of His wonder-working control 
over men and nature; the holiness, wisdom, and 



PAUL'S TESTIMONY. 24I 

grandeur of His views of Providence; the truth, 
charity, and meekness of His counsels to man. 
Their single source of hatred was the pride of 
worldly hearts that expected a king where they 
were to have found a teacher. 

" Their single charge against Him was His proph- 
ecy that there should be an end to their temple 
and their state within the life of man. 

" They crucified Him ; He died in prayer, that His 
murderers might be forgiven ; and His prayer was 
mightily answered. He had scarcely risen to His 
eternal throne when thousands believed and w r ere 
forgiven. To Him be glory, forever and ever! 

" Compare Him with your legislators. He gives 
the spirit of all law in a single sentence : ' Do unto 
others as you would that they should do unto you.' 
Compare Him with your priesthood. He gives a 
single prayer, containing the substance of all that 
man can rationally implore of heaven. Compare 
Him with your moralists. He lays the foundation 
of virtue in love to God ! Compare Him with your 
sages. He leads a life of privation without a mur- 
mur : He dies a death of shame, desertion, and 
agony, and His last breath is mercy ! Compare 
Him with your conquerors. Without the shed- 
ding of a drop of blood He has already conquered 
hosts that would have resisted all the swords of 
earth ! hosts of stubborn passions, cherished vices, 



24.2 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

guilty perversions of the powers and faculties of 
man. In proof of all, look on these glorious dead, 
whom I shall join before the set of yonder sun. 
Yes, martyrs of God ! ye were His conquest, and 
ye too are more than conquerors, through Him 
that loved us and gave Himself for us. But a 
triumph shall come, magnificent and terrible, when 
all eyes shall behold Him, and the tribes of earth, even 
they who pierced Him, shall mourn. 

" Then rejoice, ye dead ! for ye shall rise ; ye shall 
be clothed with glory: ye shall be as angels, bright 
and powerful, immortal, intellectual kings ! ' for 
though the worm destroy this body, yet in my flesh 
shall I see God.' " 



CHAPTER FOURTEEN. 



The Epiphanies of Our Risen Lord. 

/ am tie that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive 
forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. — 
Rev. i: 18. 

As has already been stated, the great central fact 
of the Christian religion is the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead. It is the very foundation 
upon which Christianity rests. This being true, 
the appearances of our Lord to His followers after 
He had triumphed over death and the grave are 
among the most important and interesting inci- 
dents of His sojourn amongst them. The dawning 
of that momentous first day of the week, which 
held in its limits the hopes of the world, was her- 
alded by an earthquake which rent the rocks about 
the city of Jerusalem and struck dread to the hearts 
of the Roman soldiers who watched at the tomb in 
the garden within a stone's throw of the walls of 
the city. To complete their undoing, the angel 
of the Lord came down from heaven, with coun- 
tenance like lightning, and with raiment white as 
snow. He came among the stricken soldiers to 
the tOrnb where Christ lay, closed with a great 

stone and sealed with the signet of the mighty 

243 



244 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Caesar, ruler of the kingdoms of the earth ; but a 
mightier than Caesar was there, one to whom the 
seals of this great earthly potentate were but as 
the clay upon which they were stamped. The seal 
was broken, the stone was rolled away and the 
Shining One sat upon it lighting up the empty tomb 
of the Son of God with effulgent glory. Hence- 
forth it was no more to be the gloomy portal tc 
an unknown world, but the open way to the home 
of the redeemed of the Lord. The question asked 
by Job so many centuries before, "If a man die, 
shall he live again?" was answered in the affirma- 
tive, for Jesus Christ had risen from the dead and 
become the first fruits of them that slept. 

The glad resurrection day was to take the place 
of the Jewish Sabbath in the Christian church, for 
it gave us a living, communing Savior, a Savior 
who had been tempted in all points as we are 
tempted, and who is now our living advocate with 
the Father. The cross gave us a dead Christ, the 
resurrection a living Redeemer. Ours is not a re- 
ligion of the dead, but of the living; not of the tomb, 
but of the coronation. Blessed day which cele- 
brates the resurrection of the Son of God. It brings 
us a new Sabbath of God, a certified Gospel of 
peace, and a salvation from sin, death, and the 
grave. 



THE EPIPHANIES OF OUR LORD. 245 

" ' Christ, the Lord, is risen to-day,' 
Sons of men and angels say: 
Raise your joys and triumphs high: 
Sing, ye heavens, and, earth, reply! 

" Love's redeeming work is done, 
Fought the fight, the battle won; 
Lo! our Sun's eclipse is o'er; 
Lo! He sets in blood no more. 

"Vain the stone, the watch, the seal; 
Christ hath burst the gates of hell: 
Death in vain forbids His rise: 
Christ hath opened Paradise. 

" Hail the Lord of Earth and Heaven! 
Praise to Thee by both be given! 
Thee we greet triumphant now! 
Hail! the resurrection, Thou! " 

The recorded appearances of Jesus after the res- 
urrection are given as nearly as possible in the or- 
der of their occurrence. There is some question as 
to the exact time when they took place, but none 
as to the fact that He did appear to His disciples 
as set forth in the Holy Scriptures. Neither are 
we to suppose that all the epiphanies of Christ are 
recorded in the New Testament We are told that 
He showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs 
to His apostles, " being seen of them forty days, 
and speaking of the things pertaining to the king- 
dom of God." 



246 the eternal verities. 

The First Efiphany. 

His Appearance to Mary Magdalene at the Sepulcher. 

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the zveek, 
He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had 
cast seven devils. — Mark 16: 9. 

Mary had come to the garden with broken heart 

to visit and mourn at the tomb of her greatest 

Friend and Benefactor. She loved much because 

much had been forgiven her. She found an empty 

sepulcher, and as she stood weeping in htr anguish, 

believing that the enemies of Christ, not satisfied 

with having murdered Him, had stolen His body 

and borne it away, these words came to her ear, 

" Why weepest thou ? " In the dim twilight of the 

early morning hour she did not recognize the 

speaker, and answered : " Sir, if thou have borne 

Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and 

I will take Flim away." Then she heard a single 

word uttered with all the tenderness of divine love, 

by a voice so well known to her, that thrilled and 

touched her heart as no other voice in all the world 

could touch and thrill her. The Master called her 

and said, " Mary." In glad surprise she turned and 

beheld her Lord. It was enough. No doubt 

clouded the brightness of her faith. No need for 

her to see nail prints or spear thrusts, in the ecstasy 

of her soul at hearing and seeing Flim alive she 



THE FIRST EPIPHANY. 



247 



cried out, " My Master ! " Words fail to paint the 
scene of our Lord's first appearance to Mary. To 
realize, even in the smallest degree, the feelings of 
the weeping woman one must have had like experi- 
ences. Only those who have suffered know what 
suffering means, only those who have had a great 
joy know the meaning of the word, and only those 
who have loved as Mary loved can know how her 
soul moved when she again saw her Master. Ar- 
nold in his matchless poem, " The Light of the 
World," puts these words in the mouth of Mary: 

" Oh, a dear word 
Spoke first to me, and, after me, to all, 
That all may always know He is the Lord, 
And Death is dead, and new times come to men; 
And Heaven's ways justified, and Christ alive, 
Whom we saw die, nailed on the cruel Cross! 
For, while I lay there, sobbing at His feet 
The word He spake — My Lord! my King! my Christ! 
Was my name: 

' Mary.' 

" If I say the Dead 
Catch tone of some melting tenderness 
When first their lovers in the new Life flock 
And greet and kiss them, telling them sweet things 
Of bliss beyond, and Love crowned Conqueror; 
If I should speak of children, dreaming ill, 
And then grown 'ware it is the dear safe breast 
Of their fond Mother which they fret upon! 
If I should liken hopeless mariners 

Snatched sudden from black gulfs; or men condemned, 
Ransomed from chains, and led to marriage-feasts; — 



248 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



With the swift comfort of that instant change, 
All must fall short! only I turned 

My quick glance upward ; saw Him ; knew Him ! sprang 
Crying: 'Rabboni! — Lord! my Lord! dear Lord! '' 

" When I was fain 
To fling my arms around His knees, and pour 
My hair upon His feet, and eat. eat. eat 
His garment's hem, with kissing; measuredly 
He stayed me. saying: 'Touch Me not! not yet 
Am I ascended to My Father ! Go ! 
Speak to My brethren; say that I ascend 
Unto ~My Father, and to } r ours, — My God, 
And your God.' " 

The Second Epiphany. 
His Appearance to the Other IV omen. 

Go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the 
dead; and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there 
shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you. And they departed 
quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy; and did 
run to bring His disciples word. And as they went to tell 
His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And 
they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. — 
Matt. 28: 7-9. 

Again our Lord shows Himself to His disciples, 
and in each case to the women first. It was fitting 
that He should reveal Himself first of all to 
His most faithful followers. It is said of them 
that they were last at the cross and first at the sep- 
ulcher, first to see their risen Lord. In their great 
perplexity at finding an empty tomb where they 
had laid the Lord, the women turn about and are 
accosted by angels from heaven who bring to them 



SECOND AND THIRD EPIPHANY. 249 

the surprising news that Jesus the Crucified is not 
among the dead, but among the living. He is risen 
from the dead, and here you may see where He was 
laid in the tomb. Go and tell His disciples and 
Peter that He is risen from the dead" and that He 
will go before :hem into Galilee. And behold, as 
they hurry away from the tomb with great joy in 
their hearts, believing without seeing, bearing the 
great news to the disciples that the Lord is risen, 
Jesus meets them and gives them heaven's gracious 
salutation, " All hail.'' And they fall down, clinging 
to His feet, and worship Him. 

The Third Epiphany. 

His Appearance to Simon Peter. 

But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth 
before you into Galilee. . . The Lord is risen and hath 
appeared unto Simon. . . And that He zcas seen of Cephas, 
and then of the twelve. — Mark 16: 7; Luke 24: 34; 1 Cor. 
15'- 5. 

After Peter denied the Lord and came to realize 
fully the enormity of his sin, he went out all heart- 
broken and wept bitterly. His ivas a godly sorrow 
that worketh true repentance. Whether the poor, 
broken-hearted disciple saw his Master again be- 
fore the crucifixion we are not informed. After 
his bitter weeping he may have been among those 
who saw the end on Calvary. Whether he did or 
not, no sooner had the Savior risen from the dead 
than He sent a message to His disciples, naming 



25O THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Peter especially. Why this special naming of the 
denier of Christ? Why not a special message to 
John the beloved? What was the silent meaning of 
the message to the heartbroken man who had wept 
so bitterly over his fatal weakness? May it not 
have been because of the desire of the Lord to com- 
fort the heart of Peter and to convey to him the 
assurance of His forgiveness? It would be intense- 
ly interesting to know what took place in this first 
interview between the disciple and his risen Lord. 
There is no doubt but that they met alone. Was it 
not then that the Lord gave the erring one the full 
assurance of His forgiveness, and took him back to 
His heart and confidence? It must have been a 
most touching scene. How Peter's heart, in all the 
impulsiveness of his nature, must have gone out tcs 
the Master. How he must have humbled himself be- 
•cause of his weakness. It ma}- be that the interview is 
purposely kept from us. What Ave do know is chat 
from this time on there was no more hesitation or 
denials on the part of Peter. He was now the 
brave, bold defender of the Gospel, the eloquent 
expounder of the faith once delivered unto the 
saints. He suffered persecution, and when he was 
crucified, as was his Lord, he requested that he 
might be placed on the cross head downward as 
not being worthy, even on the tree, to occupy the 
position of his risen Lord on the cross. 



fourth epiphany. 
The Fourth Epiphany. 



His Appearance to the Two Disciples. 

And it came to pass, that, while they communed together 
and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 
And their eyes were hold en that they should not know Him. . . 
And they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within 
us, while He talked with us, by the way, and white He opened 
to us the Scriptures? — Luke 24: 15, 16, 32. 

This is now the fourth time that Jesus showed 
Himself to the disciples on resurrection day. Cle- 
opas and his comrade, unknown to us by name, 
were wending their way from Jerusalem to Em- 
maus, some eight miles away. Their hearts were 
sad because of the occurrence of events so momen- 
tous in their character as to change the history of 
the world. As they spoke together of the Master 
and of His death and burial He joined them and 
opened unto them the Scriptures in such a way as 
to cause their hearts to burn within them. But 
their eyes were holden so that they knew Him not 
until they reached their village home and con- 
strained Him to abide with them. Then as they 
sat at meat He took bread and blessed and brake 
and gave them to eat as He had often done before 
And now their eyes were opened and they knew 
Him. But with this knowledge coming to them 
the Lord disappeared. Hastening back to the city 
they bore the glad tidings that the Lord was risen 



25 2 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

from the dead, and told how He was known to 
them by the breaking of bread. Their testimon) 
was added to that of the women and Simon Peter, 
and while the apostles stood wondering at all that' 
had been told them, some doubting whether these 
things could be so, Jesus stood in their midst. 

The Fifth Epiphany. 
His Appearance to the Ten without Thomas. 

And as they spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of ihem, 
and said unto them, Peace be upon you. But they were terri- 
fied and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And 
He said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts 
arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it 
is I Myself: handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see Me have. And when He had thus spoken, He 
showed them His hands and His feet, and while they believed 
not for joy, and wondered, He said unto them, Have ye any 
meat? — Luke 24: 36-41. 

Receiving the testimony of the brethren from 

Emmaus and having already received that of the 

women and of Peter, one would conclude that the 

apostles would all be convinced. But still they 

doubted. They were slow to believe that their 

Lord, who had been crucified and laid in the tomb, 

had come forth and was alive. But even while 

they spoke of their doubts the risen Lord stood in 

their midst and gave them the salutation of peace. 

They had securely closed and fastened the doors 

for fear of the Jews. They feared the enemies who 



fifth epiphany. 253 

had crucified Jesus, the spies of the Sanhedrin 
might come suddenly upon them, and so now a^ 
they listened to and discussed the strange tidings 
of the resurrection they did so with barred doors 
But the closed doors, doubly barred though they 
might have been, could not exclude the Savior. 
And when He appeared among them, the most og 
them not believing in His resurrection, they stood 
affrighted, thinking that a spirit had appeared unto 
them. How very natural all this is. Its very nat- 
uralness carries the impress of truth with it. Here 
is no made-up story, but the record of an actual oc- 
currence. The Lord chides them, Mark says " up- 
braiding them," because of their unbelief, because 
they believed not the testimony of those who had 
seen Him alive and borne witness to them that they 
had seen Jesus. But good has come out of their 
unwillingness to believe until fully convinced. 
Doubtless because of this tendency we have such 
abundant testimony of His resurrection and so 
many recorded epiphanies. 

The Sixth Epiphany. 
His Appearance to the Eleven, Thomas Being Present. 

Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and 
put tfiy finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand 
into His side, I will not believe. Then saith He to Thomas, 
Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither 
thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but 



254 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

believing. And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My 
Lord and myrGod. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because 
thou hast seen Ale, thou hast believed; blessed are they that 
have not seen, and yet have believed. — John 20: 25, 27-29. 

The five appearances of Jesus Christ on the day 
He rose from the dead resulted in convincing all 
the apostles of His resurrection except Thomas 
who for some cause was absent from that meeting. 
Because of his absence, and of his expressed de- 
termination not to believe without the very strong- 
est testimony, he has received the name of Thomas 
the doubter. What he missed by being absent 
from that Sunday evening meeting was an incal- 
culable loss to him. When Jesus breathed upon 
those who were present and said unto them, " Re- 
ceive ye the Holy Spirit," Thomas, because of his 
absence, lost his part in the divine benediction. He 
missed all that Jesus said to His disciples at the 
close of the resurrection day. It would be well 
for us to take a lesson from the experience of 
Thomas and never miss an opportunity of being 
present at meeting where the Lord blesses His 
people. And now a week has passed and Jesus is 
again with His disciples, and the doubting Thomas 
is present. How the Lord calls him to task for his 
unbelief, and how He gives him the proof that 
he was determined to have : " Here are the nail 
,prints, Thomas; here is the spear thrust in My side; 
press in your finger and thrust in your hand and 



SEVENTH EPIPHANY. 255 

be not faithless, but believing.'' But his finger did 
not press the wounded hands and feet, neither did 
his hand seek the pierced side; when he saw he 
exclaimed in the fullness of faith, " My Lord and 
my God." Because he believed when he saw, he 
received a blessing, but was told that a far greater 
blessing had come and would come to those who 
had not seen and yet believed. 

The Seventh Epiphany. 

His Appearance to the Seven at the Sea of Galilee. 

After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the dis- 
ciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise showed He Him- 
self. — John 21: 1. 

Simon Peter had said to his companions, " I go 

a fishing," and the reply was, " We also go with 

thee." They toiled through the long hours of the 

weary night and caught nothing. In the early 

morning a man, unknown to them, stood on the 

shore and asked them if they had anything to eat, 

and they answered him, " No." " Cast the net on 

the right side of the ship, and ye shall find," said 

the stranger on the shore. And doing this they 

took a great multitude of fishes and were unable 

to draw the net. The quick eye of John discerned 

the Lord, and he said to Simon, " It is the Lord." 

This was enough for the impulsive fisherman who 

to hide his nakedness girt his fisher cloak about 



256 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



him and sprang into the sea and swam and waded 
to the shore where Jesus was. Then came the 
touching interview in which three times the Lord 
asked . Peter if he loved Him, commanding him at 
each affirmative answer to feed His lambs and 
sheep. After this He told Peter that when he was 
young he girded himself and went where he would, 
but that when he became old another would gird 
him and take him where he would not go. The 
language was prophetical and when the apostle had 
labored earnestly and faithfully for his Lord and 
Master for many years and had suffered imprison- 
ment and stripes for the -cause he loved, he was 
bound to the cross and sealed his faith with his 
blood. 

The Eighth Epiphany. 
His Appearance to the Eleven on a Mountain in 
Galilee. 

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a 
mountain where Jesus had appointed them. . . And Jesus 
came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto 
Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world. — Matt. 28: 16, 18- 
20. 

On the very day of the resurrection Jesus in His 
message to His disciples, sent by the women, told 
them to go into Galilee where He would meet them. 



EIGHTH EPIPHANY. 257 

This eighth recorded meeting with His followers 
after His resurrection was duly appointed by the 
Lord, and there is some reason to believe that it 
was on this same occasion, on the slopes of the un- 
named mountain of Galilee, that the risen Redeemer 
was seen by above five hundred disciples at one 
time. Whether this was the time to which Paul 
refers in Corinthians or not, we do not know ; we 
do know, however, that the eleven were with Him 
and that it was at this time that He gave to His 
apostles arid through them to the world the great 
commission to preach, teach and baptize. It was 
His last commandment, given after He had received 
all power in heaven and in earth. And it comes 
down to us with the same force and authority that 
it had for the apostles. And then came the blessed 
promise, based upon obedience to His blessed Gos- 
pel, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world." Every human being who obeys the 
risen Lamb of God, and " like Him goes about to 
do good, converting sinners from the error of their 
ways, building up the body of Christ, fulfilling his 
own vocation as an apostle or missionary sent from 
God ; every Christian, however weak or obscure or 
young, belongs to the true apostolic succession." 

" Both theirs and ours Thou art, 
As we and they are Thine: 
Kings, Prophets, Patriarchs, all have part 
Along the sacred line." 



258 the eternal verities. 

The Ninth Epiphany. 

His Appearance to More than Five Hundred at 
One Time. 

After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at 
once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but 
some are fallen asleep. — 1 Cor. 15: 6. 

Whether this record refers to a time differing 
from the preceding epiphany we know not, but here 
it stands as a fact recorded by the apostle Paul, 
whose epistles are not questioned by the boldest 
infidel, that after the resurrection our Savior was 
seen by more than five hundred of His followers at 
one time. Many of these were still alive when 
Paul wrote, but some had departed. The apostle, 
recognizing the importance of this great cloud of 
witnesses in the chain of testimony proving the 
resurrection of our Lord beyond all cavil or doubt, 
gives it to us that we may not be without abundant 
evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. 

The Tenth Epiphany. 

His Appearance to James. 

After that, He was seen of James ; then of all the apostles.— 
1 Cor. 15: 7. 

As this appearance of our Lord, after His resur- 
rection, cannot be identified with any of those 
recorded in the Gospel, it must be accepted as one 
among the many unrecorded appearances which 



TENTH EPIPHANY. 259 

occurred during the forty days He was with His 
disciples before His ascension. In the first chapter 
of Acts we read, " To whom also He shewed Him- 
self alive after His passion, by many infallible 
proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speak- 
ing of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." 
The James here referred to is undoubtedly the 
brother of Jesus. In Galatians two, and nine, he is 
spoken of as one of the pillars of the church and 
in the great church council at Jerusalem he was 
the chief spokesman, and his opinions had great 
weight with the conference. Like the special ap- 
pearance to Peter, no record has been made of 
what occurred when Christ appeared to his brother 
in the flesh. It was the turning point in the life 
of James and his brethren. From this time on they 
were consistent followers of the Savior. 

Neander, referring to the testimony given by 
Paul regarding the resurrection of Christ, says 
that he was led by the Holy Ghost to give the ap- 
pearances after the resurrection so that if any should 
be inclined to doubt the testimonies given by the 
evangelists on this point, and to assume in these 
a mythic element, he is here entirely debarred 
from doing so, since nobody ever has doubted, or 
will doubt the genuineness of this epistle, and Paul 
is here speaking of historical facts throughout. Ac- 
cordingly, we may say that the resurrection of 



260 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



Christ is a fact as well attested as any in the past. 
Without it there would be a gap in history un- 
filled ; since the resurrection is essentially presup- 
posed in the very existence of the church as built 
by the apostle. 

The Eleventh Epiphany. 
His Appearance at the Ascension. 

And zvhen He had spoken these things, while they beheld, 
He was taken up: and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as He went 
up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which 
also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into 
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go 
into heaven. — Acts i: p-Ji. 

And now came the last of the Savior's appear- 
ances to His followers before His ascension. For 
forty days He had been seen of them, going in and 
out among them, eating with them, teaching them, 
and communing with them and showing Himself to 
them by many infallible proofs. They had come 
together again to be with Him and to hear from 
Him such w r ords as He might have for them. It 
was to be the final interview between Master and 
disciples. He told them to remain at Jerusalem un- 
til the Holy Ghost, the promise of the Father, 
was come upon them. He also answered their 
question as to the present restoration of Israel, 
telling them that God's seasons did not come with- 



TWELFTH EPIPHANY. 



in the limit of human knowledge. And then, after 
telling them that they should be His witnesses unto 
the uttermost parts of the earth, the everlasting 
gates were uplifted and the King of glory was 
received up into heaven. 

" Lift up your heads, O ye gates; 
Yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors: 
That the King of glory may come in! 
Who, then, is the King of glory? 
The Lord of Hosts, 
He is the King of glory." 

The Twelfth Epiphany. 
Our Lord's Appearance to the Apostle Paul. 

And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out 
of due time. — i Cor. 15: 8. 

Some five years had passed away after Jesus had 
taken farewell of His disciples and had been taken 
up from them to the right hand of the Father in. 
the glory world. A company of travelers were 
nearing the old city of Damascus. Their leader 
was a young man of rare ability, of matchless ener- 
gy and of unconquerable zeal. He had won for 
himself an unenviable reputation by his persistent 
persecution of the church of God. He had assist- 
ed at the stoning of the first martyr of the religion 
of the risen Christ. He was now on his way to 
Damascus armed with high authority to carry per- 
secution to the Christians in that city. But he 



262 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



was never to reach that place as a persecutor; he 
did go as a humble penitent seeking to know the 
truth as it is in Jesus. What had wrought this 
wonderful change? Jesus the crucified and risen 
Lord had appeared unto the earnest, zealous young 
Jew in the way, and the whole course of his life 
was changed. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is 
one of the great miracles of the New Testament, 
and his testimony leaves no doubt as to how he 
was stricken down by the marvelous light attending 
this last epiphany of Jesus Christ. Paul saw the 
Savior, not in a mental vision as some are inclined 
to think, but in an actual objective appearance, 
just as we anticipate seeing our glorified Redeemer 
at His second advent. His appearance to Paul was 
as real and personal as it had been in His appear- 
ances to His disciples before His ascension. This 
personal appearance of the Christ to Saul was the 
turning point in his life. As the resurrection gives 
an adequate account of the origin of the Christian 
church ; thus actually to have seen Christ gives an 
adequate account of the transformation of Saul 
into Paul ; taking all the circumstances of the case 
into reckoning, nothing else does. To see the glori- 
ous Form, and to hear the voice of Jesus of Naza- 
reth speaking as from heaven to him, years after 
He had been accounted dead, buried, and finally dis- 
posed of, like any other dead man, — this was a fact 



Christ's appearance to paul. 263 

which at one blow brought down in ruins all the 
creed and all the personal righteousness of Saul 
of Tarsus. " These Nazarenes, then, whom I have 
been imprisoning because they said that the cruci- 
fied One was living again, and even bringing to 
death when I could not get them to apostatize, — 
they were right ; I have been wrong. My orthodox 
Judaism has no room for this fact ; I must recast it. 
And who is He whom I have despised, hated, call- 
ing Him a ' blasphemer ' who deserved to be cruci- 
fied? I have been mistaken. I have been the blas- 
phemer. I am the sinner — chief of sinners !" 

No man can see Christ, and come in personal 
touch with Him, and go away as he was before. 
The mighty light which shone around, so that the 
dazzling brightness of that terrible desert midday 
sun was eclipsed by it, was only the external part 
of the miracle. Paul saw something else, heard 
something else, which his companions did not see 
or hear. He stood face to face with the majestic 
tenderness of the transfigured Redeemer ; was toid 
that he, the bitter persecutor, had been chosen to 
be an apostle ; that he, the narrow zealot, was to 
be the prophet of the broadest human religion ; that 
he, the bigoted Jew, was to go far hence among 
the Gentiles, and suffer for Jesus, his new Master. 
Trembling, his eyes dark, his soul full of a new 
light, he rose and went to Damascus, and there 



264 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

heard from a Christian the words, " Brother Saul, 
receive thy sight. . % . And now why tarriest 
thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy 
sins, calling on the name of the Lord." 1 

1 Acts 22: 13, 16. 



CHAPTER FIFTEEN. 



Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God. 

Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? — Matt. 16: 
13- 

For centuries the greatest statesmen, warriors, 
scholars, and thinkers have been giving answers 
to our Lord's question, " Whom do men say that I 
the Son of man. am?" From the day when Pilate 
stood before the infuriated mob in Jerusalem and 
said : " I find no fault in this man," and, " Behold 
the man," to the present day personal testimony 
in answer to the question of the Son of God has 
been multiplying, until volume upon volume would 
be required to give the merest extracts from them. 
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century 
more than twenty different lives of Christ were written 
and printed, and hundreds of thousands of these were 
published and sold all over the world. In this chapter 
will be found some of the sayings about Jesus uttered 
by notable pagans, Jews, infidels and Christians. 

Pilate's Letter to Claudius Tiberius. 

There has lately happened an event which I my- 
self was concerned in. For the Jews through envy 
have inflicted on themselves and those coming after 
them dreadful judgments. Their fathers had prom- 
ises that their God would send to them His Holy 

One from heaven, who should be called their King, 

265 



266 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



and He promised to send Him to earth by means of 
a virgin. He, then, when I was procurator, came 
into Judea. And they saw Him enlightening the 
blind, cleansing lepers, healing paralytics, expel- 
ling demons from men, raising the dead, walking 
upon the sea, and doing many other wonders, and 
all the people of the Jews calling Him the Son of 
God. Then the chief priests, moved with envy 
against Him, seized Him and delivered Him to me, 
and telling me one lie after another, they said that 
He was a wizard and did contrary to their law. 
And I, having believed that these things were so, 
gave Him up, after scourging Him, and they cruci- 
fied Him, and after He was buried, set guards over 
Him. But He, while my soldiers were guarding 
Him, arose on the third day, and to such a degree 
was the wickedness of the Jews incited against 
Him that they gave money to the soldiers, saying, 
" Say that His disciples have stolen His body." 
But they, having taken the money, were unable to 
keep silence as to what had happened, for they have 
testified that they have seen Him after He was 
risen, and that they have received money from the 
Jews. These things, therefore, have I reported, 
that no one should falsely speak otherwise, and 
that thou shouldst not suppose that falsehoods of 
the Jews are to be believed. 1 

1 Antenicene Fathers, vol. 8. 



LETTERS OF PUBLIUS LENTULUS. 267- 
PUBLIUS LENTULUS TO THE ROMAN SENATE. 

Conscript Fathers: 

There has appeared in these days a man of super- 
lative virtue, named Jesus Christ, who is yet among 
us ; of the Gentiles accepted as a prophet of truth, 
but His disciples call Him the Son of God. He 
raiseth the dead, and cureth all manner of disease. 
A man of stature somewhat tall, and comely, with 
a very reverend countenance, such as the beholder 
must both love and fear. His hair the color of a 
chestnut full ripe, plain to His ears, whence down- 
ward it is more orient, curling and waving about 
His shoulders. In the middle of His head is a seam 
or parting of His hair, after the manner of the Naza- 
rites ; forehead plain and very delicate ; His face 
without spot or wrinkle, beautiful, with a lovely 
red ; His nose and mouth so formed as nothing can 
represent them ; His beard thick, in color like His 
hair ; not over long, but forked in the middle ; His 
look innocent and mature ; His eyes gray, or blue, 
quick and clear. In reproving, He is severe ; in 
admonishing, courteous and fair spoken. His man- 
ner of speech is pleasant, but mixed with gravity. 
It cannot be remembered that any have seen Him 
laugh, but many have seen Him weep. In propor- 
tion of body, most excellent; His hands and arms 
delectable to behold ; in speaking, very temperate, 



268 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



modest and wise ; a man of singular beauty, sur- 
passing the children of men. — Written in the reign 
of Tiberius Ccesar, by Publius Lentulus, the Roman 
Procurator in J tide a. 

Near the close of the first century Tacitus, the 
Roman historian, writing about the Christians and 
their cruel persecution, says : " The founder of 
that sect was Christ, who had been executed under 
the reign of Tiberius, under his procurator Pontius 
Pilate. This pernicious superstition, thus checked 
for a while, broke out again ; and spread not only 
over Judea, where the evil originated, but through 
Rome also, whither everything bad upon the earth 
finds its way, and is practiced. Some who con- 
fessed their sect were first seized, and afterwards, 
by their information, a vast multitude were ap- 
prehended, who were convicted, not so much of the 
crime of burning Rome as of hatred to mankind. 
Their sufferings at their execution were aggravated 
by insult and mockery, for some were disguised in 
the skins of wild beasts, and worried to death by 
dogs ; some were crucified ; and others were 
wrapped in pitch shirts, and set on fire when the 
day was closed, that they might serve as lights 
to illuminate the night. Nero lent his own garden 
for these executions, and exhibited at the same time 
a mock Circensian entertainment: being a spectator 
of the whole, in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes 



TESTIMONY OF JOSEPHUS. 269 

viewing the spectacle from his car. This conduct 
made the sufferers pitied ; and though they were 
criminals, and deserving the severest punishments, 
yet they were considered as sacrificed, not so much 
out of regard for the public good, as to gratify the 
cruelty of one man." 

Testimony of Josephus. 

Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise 
man, if it be lawful to call Him a man, for He was 
a doer of wonderful works, — a teacher of such men 
as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over 
to Him both many of the Jews, and many of the 
Gentiles. He was (the) Christ ; and when Pilate, 
at the suggestion of the principal men amongst 
us, had condemned Him to the cross, A. D. 33, 
April 3, those that loved Him at the first did not 
forsake Him, for He appeared to them alive again 
the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold 
these and ten thousand other wonderful things con- 
cerning Him, and the tribe of Christians, so named 
from Him, are not extinct at this day. 1 

Our author also tells us that the Sanhedrin of the 
judges brought Christ before them and that the miser- 
ies that fell upon the Jews came " by way of revenge 
for James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus that 
was called Christ." 

1 Antiquities of the Jews, book 18, chap. 3. 



270 the eternal verities. 

Rousseau on Christ and Socrates. 
How petty are the books of the philosophers, 
with all their pomp compared with the Gospels ! 
Can it be that writings at once so sublime and so 
simple are the work of men? Can He whose life 
they tell be Himself no more than a mere man? 
Is there anything in His character of the enthusiast 
or ambitious sectary? What sweetness, what puri- 
ty in His ways, what touching grace in His teach- 
ings ! What a loftiness in His maxims, what pro- 
found wisdom in His words ! What presence of 
mind, what delicacy and aptness in His replies ! 
What an empire over His passions ! Where is the 
man, where is the sage, who knows how to act, to 
suffer, and to die without weakness and without 
display? My friends, men do not invent like this; 
and the facts respecting Socrates, which no one 
doubts, are not so well attested as those about Jesus 
Christ. These Jews could never have struck this 
tone, or thought of this morality, and the Gospel 
has characteristics of truthfulness so grand, so 
striking, so perfectly inimitable, that their inventors 
would have been more wonderful than He whom 
they portray. . . . The death of Socrates, 
peacefully philosophizing among his friends, ap- 
pears the most agreeable that one could wish ; that 
of Jesus, expiring in agonies, abused, insulted, and 
accused by a whole nation, is the most horrible 



TESTIMONY OF NAPOLEON. 2JI 

that one could fear. Socrates, indeed, receiving the 
cup of poison, blessed the weeping executioner who 
administered it; but Jesus, amidst excruciating tor- 
tures, prayed for His merciless tormentors. Yes, 
if the life and death of Socrates were those of a 
philosopher, the life and death of Jesus were those 
of a God. 

Of Rousseau's testimony Dr. Philip Schaff has 
this to say : " His remarkable testimony to Christ 
and the Gospels is the best thing that he ever wrote, 
and will be remembered the longest. It was writ- 
ten A. D. 1760, and appeared in his work on educa- 
tion." 

Napoleon on the Conqueror of the World. 

No one will accuse Napoleon with being either 
a weak-minded man or a pietist. He was a man 
of giant intellect, although of a depraved nature, 
and made all Europe tremble at the sound of his 
voice. While at St. Helena conversing, as was 
his custom, about the great men of antiquity and 
drawing comparisons between them and himself, 
he spoke of Christ in these words : " I think I 
understand something of human nature, and I tell 
you all these were men, and I am a man, but not 
one is like Him ; Jesus Christ was more than man. 
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself found- 
ed great empires ; but upon what did the creations 



2>]2 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone 
founded His empire upon love, and to this very 
day millions would die for Him. . . The Gospel 
is no mere book, but a living creature, with a vigor, 
a power, which conquers all that opposes it. Here 
lies the Book of books upon the table (reverently 
touching it) ; I do not tire of reading it, and do 
so daily with equal pleasure. The soul, charmed 
with the beauty of the Gospel, is no longer its own : 
God possesses it entirely : He directs its thoughts 
and faculties; it is His. What a proof of the di- 
vinity of Jesus Christ! Yet in this absolute sov- 
ereignty He has but one aim — the spiritual per- 
fection of the individual, the purification of his con- 
science, his union with what is true, the salvation 
of his soul. Men wonder at the conquests of Alex- 
ander, but here is a conqueror who draws men to 
Himself for their highest good ; who unites to Him- 
self, incorporates into Himself, not a nation, but 
the whole human race. I am at St. Helena a pris- 
oner chained to a rock. Soon I shall be in my 
grave. I die before my time ; and my dead body 
must return to the earth, to become food for worms. 
Behold the destiny, near at hand, of him whom the 
world called the Great Napoleon ! What an abyss 
between my deep misery and the eternal reign of 
Christ which is proclaimed, loved, adored, and 
which is extending over all the earth." 



TESTIMONY OF DE WETTE AND MILL. 273 

De Wette' s Trust in Christ. 

The great author, De Wette, — of whom Dr. 
Geikie says:- " Among all the biblical critics of 
Germany, no one has risen with an intellect more 
piercing, a learning more vast, and a freedom and 
fearlessness more unquestioned, than De Wette : " — 
in his preface to his " Commentary on Revelation " 
speaks thus of Christ : " This only I know, that 
there is salvation in no other name than in the name 
of Jesus Christ, the Crucified, and that nothing 
loftier offers itself to humanity than the God-man- 
hood realized in Him, and the kingdom of God 
which He founded — an idea and problem not yet 
rightly understood and incorporated into the life, 
even of those who, in other respects, justly rank 
as the most zealous and warmest Christians ! Were 
Christ in deed and in truth our Life, how could 
such a falling away from Him be possible? Those 
in whom He lived would witness so mightily for 
Him, through their whole life, whether spoken, writ- 
ten, or acted, that unbelief would be forced to silence." 

John Stuart Mill. — The Christ Life Best 
of All. 

Mill, logician, philosopher and scholar, refers to 
Christ in these words : " About the life and say- 
ings of Jesus there is a stamp of personal original- 
ity combined with profundity of insight which must 



274 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

place the prophet of Nazareth, even in the estima- 
tion of those who have no belief in His inspiration, 
in the very first rank of those men of sublime gen- 
ius of whom our species can boast. When this 
pre-eminent genius is combined with the qualities 
of probably the greatest moral reformer, and mar- 
tyr to that mission, who ever existed upon earth, 
religion cannot be said to have made choice in 
pitching on this man as the ideal representative 
and guide of humanity; nor even now would it be 
easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better trans- 
lation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into 
the concrete than to endeavor so to live that Christ 
would approve of our life." 

President McKinley's Faith. 

William McKinley, twice elected President of the 
United States, thus briefly expressed his views on 
the Christian religion : " My belief embraces the 
divinity of Christ and a recognition of Christianity 
as the mightiest factor in the world's civilization." 

It was only a few brief months after this expres- 
sion of his belief that the President was called up- 
on to face death. Stricken down by the assassin's, 
bullet, he calmly met his fate., To his stricken wife 
he said, " Not our will, but God's will be done." 
Then the watchers by his bedside heard him say- 
ing, " Nearer, my God, to thee," and then came the 



TESTIMONY OF WEBSTER. 275 

last words, " Good-bye, all ; good-bye. It is God's 
way. His will be done." With these words on his 
lips the great, good man sank into his last sleep. 

Daniel Webster's Declaration of His Belief. 

Bishop James relates that in company with a 
number of literary men of Boston Webster, when 
asked whether he could comprehend how Jesus 
could be both God and man, replied : " No, sir, I 
cannot ; and I should be ashamed to acknowledge 
Him as my Savior if I could. If I could compie- 
hend Him, He would be no greater than myseif; 
and such is my conviction of accountability to God ; 
such is my sense of sinfulness before Him ; and 
such is my knowledge of my own incapacity to re- 
cover myself, that I feel that I need a superhuman 
Savior." In a letter to Rev. T. Worcester, he de- 
clares : " I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of 
God. The miracles which He wrought establish, 
in my mind, His personal authority, and render it 
proper for me to believe whatever He asserts. 

" I believe, therefore, all His declarations, as well 
when He declares Himself the Son of God, as-when 
He declares any other proposition. 

" And I believe that there is no other way of 
salvation than through the merits of the atone- 
ment." 



I 



276 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Before his death the great statesman dictated 
his own epitaph, and it is to be found upon his tomb 
in Marshfield, Mass. : 

LORD, 1 believe; help thou mine unbelief. 

PHILOSOPHICAL 
ARGUMENT, ESPECIALLY THAT 
DRAWN FROM THE VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE 
IN COMPARISON WITH THE APPARENT INSIGNIFICANCE 
OF THIS GLOBE, HAS SOMETIMES SHAKEN MY REASON FOR 
THE FAITH WHICH IS IN ME J BUT MY HEART HAS AL- 
WAYS ASSURED AND REASSURED ME THAT THE 
GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST MUST BE A DIVINE 
REALITY. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 
CANNOT BE MERELY A HUMAN PRO- 
DUCTION. 

THIS BELIEF ENTERS INTO THE VERY DEPTH OF MY 
CONSCIOUSNESS. THE WHOLE HISTORY OF 
MAN PROVES IT. 

Washington, Lincoln and Grant. 

Washington was a firm believer in prayer and a 
constant reader of the Bible. Of him John Cotton 
Smith says : " See the effect of a mother's early faith- 
fulness to the immortal Washington, who suffered not 
a day to pass over him without consulting his Bible." 

The colored men presented President Lincoln a copy 
of the Bible, and in thanking them for their gift he 
said : " In regard to the great Book of God I have 
only to say, it is the best book that God has given 



WASHINGTON, LINCOLN, GRANT. 

to man.. All the good from the Savior of the world 
is communicated in this Book. I return my sincere 
thanks for this elegant copy of the great Book of 
God." 

To General Grant the Bible was the light for all 
human progress, the sheet-anchor of our liberties, and 
the guide for our future. He says : " Hold fast to 
the Bible as the sheet-anchor ; write its precepts in 
your hearts and practice them in your lives. To the 
influence of this Book- we are indebted for all prog- 
ress made in our true civilization, and to this we must 
look as our guide in the future." 

Dickens, the Great Author, Trusts in Christ. 

" An angel speaking to a group of shepherds ; some 
travelers following a star; a baby in a manger; a 
child in a temple ; a solemn figure with a mild, beauti- 
ful face, raising a dead girl by the hand; again near 
a city gate, calling back the son of a widow to life ; 
again, dying upon a cross, watched by armed soldiers, 
a thick darkness coming on, the earth beginning to 
shake, and the only voice heard — ' Father, forgive 
them, for they know not what they do.' ' . I com- 
mit my soul to the mercy of God through our Lord 
and Savior Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear chil- 
dren to try to guide themselves by the teachings of 
the New Testament." 



278 the eternal verities. 

Gladstone, England's Greatest Statesman. 

" Our Savior astonished people because, instead of 
being lost in the mazes of arbitrary and vicious excres- 
cences that darkened the face of religion, He taught 
them ' with authority and not as the scribes.' Taught 
them with authority, that is to say, with the title to 
command, and with the force to command. If God 
has given us a revelation of His will, whether in the 
laws of our nature, or in the kingdom of grace, that 
revelation not only illuminates, but binds. Like the 
credentials of an earthly ambassador, it is just as 
necessary that the credentials of that revelation should 
be tested. But if found to be genuine, if we have 
proofs of its being genuine, equal to those of which, 
in the ordinary concerns of life, reason acknowledges 
the obligatory character, then we find ourselves to 
be not independent beings engaged in an optional in- 
quiry, but the servants of a Master, the pupils of 
a Teacher, the children of a Father, and each of 
us already bound with the bonds which those rela- 
tions imply. Then head and knee must bow before 
the Eternal, and the Divine Will must be embraced 
and followed by man with all his heart, with all 
his mind, with all his soul, and with all his strength." 

Edwin Arnold tn Christ the Light of 
the World. 

" High cause had they in Bethlehem that night 
To lift the curtain of Hope's hidden light, 



TESTIMONY OF ARNOLD AND HILLIS. 279 



To break decree of silence with love's cry, 
Foreseeing how this Babe, born lowlily, 
Should — past dispute, since now achieved in this — 
Bring Earth great gifts* of blessing and of bliss. 

* * * 

The cruel Cross — oh, Tree, which made its wood, 
Who planted thee? Did birds nest in thy boughs 
And sunshine light thy leaves? — the cruel Cross. 

* * * 

He showed himself in full midst of Jerusalem, 
Amongst the eleven, — nail-marks on hands and feet, 
Rose-red, and spear-gashed scarring the white side; 
And ate of fish and honey from their board; 
Then blessed, and led them forth to Olivet; 
And passed — as if, they said, a waiting cloud 
Received Him out of sight." 

hlllis on the literature of the 
New Testament. 

" Though nearly three centuries have passed, 
Shakespeare has had but twelve great students of 
four nationalities who have given us great commen- 
taries upon those immortal dramas. No young schol- 
ar has felt so interested in the Bard of Stratford that 
he has gone to some province in Africa in order to 
give his beloved poet to the people, or formulated 
their rude speech into written language, yet during 
the nineteenth century the intellectual stimulus of 
Christ's story has been such that more than two* hun- 
dred dictionaries and grammars, in as many dialects 
and languages, have been compiled for the further- 
ance of Christ's thoughts and the enrichment of men's 



28o 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



lives. „ . Ill view of His influence upon law, lit- 
erature, letters and life, it seems hard not to believe 
in Christ's supremacy in intellect. For some reason, 
no author has ever spoken of Christ as earth's su- 
preme literary artist. Men have discussed His ideas 
of childhood, home, friendship and heaven, but they 
have held themselves well away from all word as to 
the marvelous skill with which He formulated thoughts 
so melodious that, though they have been translated 
twice, they still breathe the sound of ethereal music. 
Christ's thoughts, injured by translators and marred 
by copyists, seem like those precious marbles from 
the hand of Phidias, the very fragments of which 
are so beautiful as to evoke the admiration of all 
beholders. Nevertheless, His words, as quoted by 
His four biographers, represent in form and thought 
the highest products of genius that the literary art 
has ever produced." 

Dr. Emil Hirsch, Jewish Rabbi of Chicago. 

The scholarly Jewish Rabbi asked some questions 
at the Religious Parliament which may well demand 
the serious attention of Christians: "Were those 
marked for glory by the great Teacher of Nazareth 
who wore the largest phylacteries? Did Jesus re- 
gard the temple only as holy? Did not the prayer 
of the great Master of Nazareth teach all and all 
ages that prayer must be the stirring of love? Can 



TESTIMONY OF HIRSCH AND INGERSOLL. 28l 

an unforgiving heart pray, ' Forgive as we forgive' ? 
Can one ask for daily bread when he refuses to break 
bread with the hungry ? " 

At Atlanta, Georgia, the Rabbi made a strong plea 
against the generally accepted and oft-repeated asser- 
tion that the Jews put Jesus to death. He said : " At 
the time Jesus was killed, the Jews had been deprived 
of the right to inflict the death penalty. Furthermore, 
crucifixion was a Roman and not a Hebrew mode of 
killing; the Romans and not the Jews put Jesus to 
death. The modern Jews claim Jesus as one of 
their greatest teachers and place Him in the front 
rank of their prophets." • 

Ingersoll Pays Tribute to Christ. 

Ingersoll, in his better moments, thought most high- 
ly of Christ. Who could have written more pathetic- 
ally of the Master than did the gifted infidel when he 
said : " For the man Christ who loved His fellow-men 
and believed in an Infinite Father who would shield 
the innocent and protect the just ; for the martyr who 
expected to be rescued from the cruel cross, and who 
at last, finding that His hope was dust, cried out in the 
gathering gloom, ' My God, My God, why hast Thou 
forsaken Me ? ' for that great and suffering man I have 
the highest admiration and respect. They crucified a 
kind and perfectly innocent man. In all ages 
some brave lover of truth heroically faces the ig- 



282 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

norant fury of superstition for the sake of man and 
truth. Socrates was poisoned, Christ was crucified. 
Christ was the reformer of His day, and His life 
was destroyed by hypocrites. Had I lived in His day, 
I would have been His friend; and should He ever 
come again while I am here, He will find no bet- 
ter friend than I will be.. His life is worth its ex- 
ample — its moral force, its heroism of benevolence. 
For that name I have infinite respect and love. To 
that great and serene man I gladly pay the hom- 
age of my admiration and my tears. . . The place 
where man has died for man is holy ground." 

Renan on a Perfect Model. 

" In Jesus is condensed all that is good and exalted 
in our nature. He is without equal. He is to judge 
the world. He is at God's right hand. His is the 
highest consciousness that has existed in the human 
breast. He draws from His heart all that He says 
of the Father. God is in Him. He forgives sin. 
He was the glory of the people of Israel who cruci- 
fied Him, the perfect Model on which all souls med- 
itate for consolation and strength. His Father gave 
to Him all power. Nature obeys Him. His was the 
benign religion of humanity ; the absolute religion. 
After passing through cycles of error, humanity will 
return to the words of Jesus as the immortal ex- 
pression of faith and hope. He founded the 



BISHOP FOSSES ANSWER. 283 

right of free conscience and a pure worship for 
all times and climes. . . Whatever may be the sur- 
prises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. 
His worship will grow young without ceasing, His 
story call forth tears without end. His sufferings will 
melt the noblest hearts, and all ages will proclaim 
that among the sons of men there is none born great- 
er than Jesus." 

Bishop Foss's Answer. 

Suppose that Christ were now to come in at yon- 
der door, and, standing before us in meek self-evi- 
dence — for we will never need be introduced to Him 
— should ask as He asked His disciples once, ' Who 
do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?' O, if 
I might be your joyful spokesman, I would tell Him, 
' O, blessed Christ, the world has not forgotten Thee ; 
biographies of Thee are in all libraries.' ' But who 
do men say that I am ? ' If my tongue did not cling 
to the roof of my mouth, I would say, ' Some say 
that Thou art a myth, a fancy portrait, and that a 
myth has changed the face of the world ! ' And then 
suppose that He should demand of us, ' But who 
say ye that I am ? ' O, if again I might be your 
happy spokesman, on bended knees and with stream- 
ing eyes I would cry, ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God, Thyself very man and very God.' " 



284 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



Getkie on Christ's Character. 

" He demands repentance for all, but never for 
a moment hints at any need of it for Himself. With 
all His matchless lowliness, He advances personal 
claims which, in a mere man, would be the very de- 
lirium of religious pride. He was divinely patient 
under every form of suffering,— a homeless life, hun- 
ger and thirst, craft and violence, meanness and pride, 
the taunts of enemies and betrayal of friends, end- 
ing in an ignominious death. Nothing of all this 
for a moment turned Him from His chosen path of 
love and pity. His last words, like His whole life, 
were a prayer for those who returned Him evil for 
good. His absolute superiority to everything narrow 
or local, so that He, a Jew, founded a religion in which 
all mankind are a common brotherhood, equal be- 
fore God ; the dignity, calmness, and self-possession 
before rulers, priests, and governors, which sets Him 
immeasurably above them ; His freedom from super- 
stition, in an age which was superstitious almost be- 
yond example ; His superiority to the merely exter- 
nal and ritual, in an age when rites and externals were 
the sum of religion : all these considerations, to men- 
tion no others, explain the mysterious attraction of 
I lis character, even when looked at merely as an 
ideal Man." 

And so the words of the learned and great men, 
as the world counts greatness, might be quoted until 



Christ's life and character. 285 

the closing chapter of this book was written, and then 
but a tithe of all that has been said and written in 
answer to Christ's question could be given. Pagan, 
infidel, Jew, and Christian alike bear testimony to 
His wonderful life and character, the exalted moral- 
ity of His teaching, and the great power of His ex- 
ample. He was approved of God by miracles, but 
His life was the greatest of all miracles ever wrought. 
He taught and spoke as never man taught and spoke, 
and there is but one answer to the question, " Who 
do men say that I the Son of man am ? " That an- 
swer, given by a poor, illiterate fisherman of Gali- 
lee, revealed unto him by the Father in heaven, will 
stand when heaven and earth shall pass away, " Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 



CHAPTER SIXTEEN. 



Agreement Between the Land and the Book. 

A strong evidence of the truth of God's Book is 
to be found in the remarkable agreement between 
the Book itself and the land where it was written. 
Upon landing at Joppa the traveler in Palestine is 
at once struck with the fact that very many of the 
old-time customs common in Palestine when the Bible 
was written are adhered to to-day with all the perti- 
nacity of Oriental conservatism. As he continues his 
journey to Jerusalem, to Bethlehem, to Hebron, to 
the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, to Sa- 
maria, Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee, and to Mount 
Hermon and the northern boundary of the land, he 
will be surprised again and again to see the cus- 
toms of two and three thousand years ago linger- 
ing in the lap of the twentieth century of the Chris- 
tian era. There are so many striking points of agree- 
ment between the land and the Book that one is 
forced to say that in no other country could the 
Bible have been written, for in no other land are 
to be found the conditions so definitely stated and 
so clearly set forth in the Bible. And this agree- 
ment confirms our faith in the Book. 

If one of our friends, in whom we had implicit 

286 



AGREEMENT OF LAND AND BOOK. 287 

confidence, should visit the capital of our country and 
write a book descriptive of Washington City, telling 
about the Capitol, the White House, the Congres- 
sional Library, the Patent Office, the Smithsonian In- 
stitute, the National Museum, the Washington Mon- 
ument, and other places of general interest, we would 
accept his statements as being correct ; but if later 
on we should visit the place ourselves and find the 
conditions agreeing, even in the minutest detail, with 
what our friend had given us in his work, it would 
tend to confirm our faith in his truthfulness and ve- 
racity. The same is true of Palestine and the Bible. 
No one can visit the Holy Land with open eyes 
without being impressed with the truth of the state- 
ment that the Book was written there, and nowhere 
else. As one sees two women grinding at the mill, 
the shepherd leading his flock, the farmer in his har- 
vest field and on his threshing floor, the gleaners 
in the field, the merchant measuring grain, the one- 
handled plow, the sower casting seed on the ground, 
the husbandman pruning his vines, the unmuzzled ox 
treading out the corn, the blind beggars by the way- 
side, the lepers crying out " Unclean ! unclean ! " the 
tares growing among- the wheat, the potter at his 
wheel, the villagers dividing the land by lot, and 
scores of similar illustrations, he is filled with as- 
tonishment and is ready to say, Of a verity the 
Book of God is true. Seeing these also reveals how 



288 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



Jesus selected His illustrations from among those 
things with which the common people were familiar 
and used them to teach the most important truths 
ever revealed to the world. Let us briefly examine 
some of these customs of the past and observe how 
wonderfully they agree with the Bible. 

Measuring Grain. 

Give, and it shall be given unto yon; good measure, pressed 
down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give 
into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete 
withal, it shall be measured to you again. — Luke 6: 38. 

In Jerusalem I saw the merchant and the buyer 
measuring the grain that was bought and sold in the 
market place. The measure is seized with both hands 
and partly filled with grain and is then shaken most 
vigorously. After this more grain is put in and 
again the shaking process is repeated until the grain 
is thoroughly shaken together. Then more grain is 
added and pressed down in the measure with both 
hands until one is thoroughly convinced the meas- 
urer is determined to get all the grain possible into 
and on the measure. He heaps it up, pressing the 
grain on ; and when you think it impossible for him 
to add any more, he makes a hole in the top of 
the heap on the measure and then takes up a hand- 
ful of grain and allows it to run from his hand 
into the hole until it fills up and up and runs over 
all around the measure. Then the purchaser care- 



WHEAT AND TARES. 20,1 

fully puts the mouth of the sack over the measure, 
and thus secures every grain on the overrunning 
measure when it is emptied into his cloth. I watched 
the measuring a number of times and always with 
intense interest. Each time my mind reverted to the 
words of the Master who, when He was in Pal- 
estine, witnessed just such measuring as is here de- 
scribed. And He not only witnessed it but used it 
to illustrate one of the great truths He gave to hu- 
manity. 

Wheat and Tares. 

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among 
the wheat. . . . Wilt thou then that zee go and gather them 
up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye 
root up the wheat also. — Matt. 13: 25, 28, 29. 

On our way from Jerusalem to Ain-Karen we 
passed many wheat fields fully headed out, for the 
time of harvest was near at hand. And now as the 
blade had sprung up and put forth fruit, behold the 
tares, which were not visible before, appeared also. 
These grow much taller than the wheat and were 
to be seen from the roadside, waving above the fruit- 
ful field. As when the Master was in Palestine, so 
now, the husbandman either pulls up the tares by 
the roots, taking some wheat at the same time, or 
suffers both to grow together until the harvest, when 
they are gathered into bundles and burned. The stalk, 
when the tares are ripe, is hard and tasteless, and 



292 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

is fit only for fuel. " Wilt thou then that we go 
and gather them ? " shows most conclusively that this 
was one of the common methods of disposing of the 
tares. So now, as then, before they are fully ripe 
they are often plucked up by the root and fed to 
the cattle. In rambling about the country just at 
the harvest time one often meets men and women 
who have on their heads and backs great bundles of 
tares which they have gathered for food for their 
animals. But in plucking up the tares, be they ever 
so careful, they also root up more or less of the 
wheat. Many farmers, even unto this day. adopt 
the plan of the householder of whom Jesus spoke, 
and let both grow together until harvest, when 
the tares are gathered into bundles and burned. 
Wishing to bring a handful of tares home with me 
1 went into a wheat field by permission of the own- 
er and plucked them up. I observed the greatest 
care in trying to uproot the tares without pulling 
up the wheat also. But I found this impossible to 
do. Upon examination it was found that the roots 
of the tares were so intertwined with the wheat that 
it was impossible to pluck up the one without up- 
rooting the other. How literally in every single de- 
tail do the tares growing among the wheat fit into 
the parable of our Lord. How carefully He must 
have studied these things. 



W from Palest 



me. 



the pet lamb. 295 

The Pet Lamb. 

But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, 
which he had bought and nourished up; and it grew up with 
him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and 
drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him 
as a daughter. — 2 Sam. 12: 3. 

There are few more beautiful pictures in the Bi- 
ble than this, and yet one can scarcely get the full 
force and strength of this most pathetic illustration 
used by the prophet to bring conscious conviction to 
Israel's sinning king, unless something is known of 
the tenderness of feeling and the affection and love 
manifested in the family for the pet lamb. Nathan 
drew his story from real life and it touched the 
heart of David because of its naturalness. Nearly 
thirty centuries have gone since the story of the 
ewe lamb was told, and still the pet lamb is as com- 
mon in the City of David to-day as it was then. 
A thousand instances of the same kind are to be 
found in Palestine now, — the pet lamb growing up 
in the family with the children, their constant play- 
fellow, eating from their hands a portion of their 
food, slaking its thirst from their drinking cups, sleep- 
ing in the bosom of its owner, even as one of his own 
children. And when the lamb dies or is taken away, 
there are tears in the home, for the love for the pet 
is real and genuine. Scores and scores of times have 
I seen, in my rambles about the country and the city, 
men and women, boys and girls, leading their pet 



296 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

lambs by a single cord, or a ribbon, or oftener still 
by the stronger and more enduring cord of love. 
Once as I walked down David street in Jerusalem 
I saw a boy racing with his pet lamb playfully fol- 
lowing him. I stopped and watched the playful an- 
tics of the two, and then thought what a sad heart 
the boy would have were his lamb taken away from 
him. Later on I saw a lad sitting by the wayside 
and his lamb closely nestled by his side asleep, — lit- 
erally asleep in his bosom. And so one finds in 
the relation of the pet lamb and its owner to-day 
what the prophet Nathan found in it so many cen- 
turies ago, when he reproved David for his most 
grievous sin. But the love and tenderness of this 
most beautiful and touching relation, which is as 
strong as that between an affectionate son or daugh- 
ter and a loving father, finds its highest exempli- 
fication when the forerunner of our Lord finds in 
it a most tender and fitting name for the Savior 
of the world—" BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD." 

The Descendants of Ishmael. 

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every 
man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in 
the presence of all his brethren. . . . Behold, I have blessed 
him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceed- 
ingly. — Gen. 16: 12; 17: 20. 

So spake the angel of God concerning the unborn 
child of Abraham and Hagar; and no prophecy ever 




Descendants of Ishmael. 



DESCENDANTS OF ISHMAEL. 3OI 

uttered has been more literally fulfilled than this. 
One only needs to visit the Arab in his tabernacle 
in the East and note his way of living and his man- 
ners and customs to be led to say, without the slight- 
est hesitancy, " Indeed and in truth have the words 
of the Lord spoken to Hagar concerning the descend- 
ants of Ishmael been fulfilled to the very letter." 
They have multiplied and multiplied exceedingly, until 
no one can tell their number. They are a wild, roving 
people now as they have been for all the centuries that 
have passed since they became a nation. They have 
dwelt in tents, or tabernacles, in the presence of their 
brethren, the Jews and other descendants of Abraham, 
for more than three thousand years, and they dwell 
in tents even unto this very day. Their hand is 
against every man and every man's hand is against 
them, and this they are free to tell you if you visit 
them in their desert homes. When Volney said the 
Arabs are " armed against mankind," he did not real- 
ize that he was bearing testimony to the truth of the 
Bible as evidenced in the fulfillment of prophecy. In 
1884, in riding from Damascus to Baalbek, the writer 
had a literal illustration of the fighting qualities of 
these people. Our party was surrounded by a howl- 
ing, yelling mob of them, and we had every man's 
hand against us. That we escaped without injury 
was one of the marvels of our long ride through Pal- 
estine and Syria. That these people should have kept 



302 



THE ETERNAI, VERITIES. 



their identity and clung to manners and customs 
through all the centuries that have passed since God 
spoke concerning them, surrounded as they have been 
by nations living in luxury and enjoying many of the 
advantages of civilization, is one of the wonders of 
prophecy. And yet not wonderful when it is remem- 
bered that God knows the end from the beginning. 

The Shepherd and his Flock. 

How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of 
them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and 
goeih into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone 
astray? And if so be that lie Hud it, verily I say unto you, lie 
rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which 
went not astray. — Matt. 18:12, 13. 

In 1899 in company with several friends the writer 
rambled over Mount Scopus and Olivet. On the hill- 
side northwest of Jerusalem we met a shepherd lead- 
ing his flock to a bit of green pasture down the valley. 
He went before the sheep calling, and they followed 
him. Presently two of the flock became separated 
from the rest and strayed up the hillside away from 
the shepherd. Observing them he lifted up his voice 
and called to the straying sheep, and one of them 
turned back and rejoined the flock. The other wan- 
dered away and was lost sight of among the rocks on 
the mountain side. Then the shepherd gathered his 
flock close together and left it and went after that 
which had strayed away and was lost. When he 



SHEPHERD AND FLOCK. 303 

found it he laid it on his shoulder and carried it safely 
back to the flock. It was a most striking illustration of 
the words of our Savior ; and such scenes as this He 
must have witnessed many times in Palestine. To us 
it was confirmatory of the truth of the Bible, showing 
in every detail the same conditions that existed when 
Jesus made use of the incident to illustrate in such a 
forcible manner the loving care of the Divine Shep- 
herd for His sheep and the joy occasioned over the 
return of the wanderer. 

One cannot witness the relation existing between 
the shepherd and his flock in the Holy Land without 
having his mind continually reverting to the scriptural 
allusions to the shepherd and his flock. Along the 
valleys and on the hillsides — wherever the grass 
grows — you may see the shepherd leading his flock. 
As in the days of the Shepherd King who said, " The 
Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want," and in the 
days when our Lord, the great Shepherd led His 
sheep about Palestine, so to-day the shepherds in the 
Holy Land lead their sheep and call them by name. 
The Savior said : " I am the good shepherd, and know 
my sheep, and am known of mine ;" and again : " He 
calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth 
before them, and the sheep follow him : for they know 
his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but 
will flee from him : for they know not the voice of 



304 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

strangers." How many times in Syria have I seen 
the shepherds leading their flocks ! Among the hills 
which encompass Jerusalem on every side, on the 
plains about Bethlehem, where the shepherds in the 
olden time watched their flocks by night, in the valley 
of the Jordan, along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, 
over Hermon and Lebanon, and by the waters of 
Abana and Pharpar, have I witnessed the shepherd 
going before his flock and calling his sheep by name, 
and the sheep following their leader. Once in a val- 
ley south of Jerusalem I saw a shepherd leading 
his flock to green pastures. I called to the sheep, but 
at the sound of my voice they fled away affrighted, 
not knowing the voice of the stranger. Often in the 
evening time you may hear a shepherd calling from 
a hilltop to a companion in the valley below, asking 
whether there are any stray sheep in his flock. The 
answer is : " Call, and I will see." The shepherd 
whose sheep have gone astray then gives a peculiar 
call with which his sheep are familiar, and his stray 
sheep at once lift up their heads, while the rest of 
the flock go on grazing as if nothing had happened. 
The sheep know their shepherd's voice. The entire 
relation between the shepherd and his flock is most 
tender and touching, and it most beautifully illus- 
trates the tender care and the wonderful love mani- 
fested by the Good Shepherd for His' sheep. " He 



SHEEP AND GOATS. 



shall feed His flock like a shepherd : He shall gather 
the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bos- 
om." 

The Sheep and the Goats. 

And He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
dividcth his sheep from the goats. — Matt. 25: 32. 

You may see the sheep and goats pasturing to- 
gether in Palestine, the same shepherd watching over 
both. But when evening comes the shepherd divides 
his flock, the sheep going to one side and the goats 
to the other. The Master uses this custom to illus- 
trate the important truth that at the day of judg- 
ment there will be a separation of the righteous from 
the wicked. It is worthy of note that in dividing 
his flock the shepherd has but little difficulty. By 
usage the sheep know their places, and the goats like- 
wise theirs. Will it be so in the day of all days when 
the Judge shall sit upon His throne ? He says, " And 
if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge 
him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to 
save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiv- 
eth not My words, hath one that judgeth him : the 
Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him 
in the last day." 

Dogs. 

And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise 
like a dog, and go round about the city. Let them wander 
up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied. 



308 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

. . . For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremon- 
gers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and 
maketh a lie. — Psa. 59: 14, 15; Rev. 22: 15. 

It would be impossible for us, without a knowl- 
edge of conditions in the Land where the Book was 
written, to understand the Bible allusion to the dog. 
With our views of the love and faithfulness of this 
noble domestic animal, the contempt in which he is 
held by all the Bible writers is inexplicable. In our 
homes we do not have a more intelligent, faithful, 
obedient animal than the dog, and his faithfulness 
to and his love for his master have passed into prov- 
erbs. Why, then, does the Bible invariably place 
such a low estimate on the canine? Why is he men- 
tioned only in terms of contempt in the Book? Un- 
der the law of Moses these animals were considered 
unclean and unfit for human association, and wher- 
ever reference is made to them only offensive expres- 
sions are used. Among the Jews no greater insult 
could be offered to a man than to compare him to 
a dead dog. The name is applied to any one who 
has lost all modesty and who prostitutes himself by 
committing any abominable practice. In the New 
Testament they are classed among idolaters, murder- 
ers, sorcerers and whoremongers, and the Psalmist 
applies the name dog to the devil when he says, " De- 
liver my soul from the sword; my darling from the 
power of the dog." 



i 



DOGS. 311 

But one only need visit the towns and cities of Pal- 
estine and the Orient to understand fully why dogs 
are held in such low estimation and why only terms 
of contempt are used when they are spoken of. In 
Jerusalem, Damascus, Smyrna, Constantinople and 
other Oriental towns and cities great numbers of 
dogs infest the streets and make night hideous with 
their snarling, barking and howling. They are house- 
less, homeless and ownerless, and are veritable street 
scavengers, living on refuse and carrion. They are 
poor, lean and mangy, and in some places are so 
numerous that it is not only difficult but at times 
dangerous to go about the streets. The writer has 
often been compelled to leave the sidewalk and walk 
in the street to avoid a disreputable lot of dogs. 
By some instinct they combine into gangs and these 
have a well defined portion of the city as their own, 
and woe to the luckless, hairless, mangy cur that 
wanders on forbidden ground. When this occurs a 
dead dog is the result, and when a number invade 
hostile territory as they often do at night the howl- 
ing and barking and fighting are incessant and pre- 
clude all possibility of sleep. After spending a few 
months in an Oriental city one is quite ready to 
accept the low estimate placed on dogs in the Bible. 



312 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



The Broadened Phylacteries. 

But all their zvorks they do for to be seen of men: they 
make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their 
garments. — Matt. 23: 5. 

The Jews gave a literal interpretation to Ex. 13: 
8, 9, 16: " And thou shalt tell thy son in that day; 
saying, It is because of that which Jehovah did for 
me when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall 
be for a sign unto thee upon thy hand, and for a 
memorial between thine eyes, that the law of Je- 
hovah may be in thy mouth. And it shall be for 
a sign upon thy hand, and for a frontlet between 
thine eyes : for by strength of hand Jehovah brought 
us forth out of Egypt." For nearly three thousand 
years the Jews have worn, in some form or other, 
portions of the law as a sign upon the forearm and 
as a frontlet between the eyes. Since the time of 
our Lord very little, if any, change has been made 
in the form of the phylacteries. The word is Greek, 
and its literal meaning is a safeguard. In the syn- 
agogues in Jerusalem and among orthodox Jews the 
world over the phylactery (tephellin in the Hebrew) 
is worn in time of prayer. Great care has always 
been taken in making phylacteries. Those in pos- 
session of the writer are made of black calfskin and 
are in the shape of cubes about two inches square, 
fitted with long, narrow leather straps used to fas- 
ten the leathern cases on the head and to the arm. 




Phylacteries on Arm and Forehead. 



BROADENED PHYLACTERIES. 315 

The calfskin used in making them is most carefully 
prepared and the slips of parchment on which are 
inscribed Deut. 6: 4-9; 11 : 13-21 ; Ex. 13: 1-10, 11-16, 
which are placed in the boxes, are written with spe- 
cially prepared ink with minute accuracy and neatness. 
The phylacteries for the head are divided into four 
cavities, in each one of which is placed one of the 
four texts referred to ; those for the arm have but 
a single cavity containing all four texts written on 
a single piece of parchment. In placing the phylac- 
tery on the arm it is bared to the elbow and the 
leather case is fastened to the inside of the arm 
so as to cross the heart when the arm is folded in 
prayer. The strap by which it is fastened is wrapped 
five times around the arm and then twice over and 
between the fingers. The phylacteries were worn by 
the men only. The common people wore them dur- 
ing prayers, but the Pharisees in order to make a 
show of the form of religion wore them all the time 
and broadened and enlarged them so that all could 
see their prayer fillets. It was because of this that 
the Savior rebuked them for making " broad their 
phylacteries." He did not condemn the wearing of 
them, but the show and ostentation connected with 
it. Instead of being a reminder of what God had 
done for His people, they had become badges of van- 
ity and hypocrisy. 



3l6 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Jot and Tittle of the Law. 

For verily I say unto yon, Till heaven and earth pass, one 
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be 
fulfilled.— Matt. 5: 18. 

The rolls of the law now used in the synagogues 
are similar to those used in the time of Christ. They 
are prepared with the greatest possible care. The 
writing is all done by hand, the letters being formed 
with great accuracy, and the written page is ex- 
tremely neat in appearance. Prof. Hackett, speaking 
of the work of the Jewish scribe, says : " A more 
elegant Hebrew manuscript, a more perfect specimen 
of the caligraphic art, I never saw than that executed 
by the Jewish amanuensis. No printed page could 
surpass it in the beauty, symmetry and distinct- 
ness with which the characters were drawn. One pe- 
culiarity that struck me at once, as I cast my eye 
over the parchment, was the horn-like appearance at- 
tached to some of the letters." The horn-like orna- 
ment appended to some of the Hebrew letters is the 
" tittle " referred to in the text. It is more promi- 
nent in some manuscripts than in others. The jot 
refers to the yodh, the smallest letter in the He- 
brew alphabet, and it has one of the horn-like or- 
naments. The illustration shows how exceedingly 
jealous God is of His Word. A stronger illustra- 
tion could not have been used to show that no part 
of God's law should pass unfulfilled; It would be 



BED OF PALESTINE. 317 

the same as saying, if the law had been originally 
written in the English language, that not a single 
" i " or a dot above a " j " should pass until all be 
fulfilled. 

The Bed of Palestine. 

Not only in Jerusalem, but in other Eastern cit- 
ies, one often meets men carrying their beds. It was 
an easy task for the paralytic whom the Master healed 
to roll up his bed, take it up under his arm or lay 
it upon his shoulder and carry it away. As now, so 
then, the bed was simply a mat, blanket or quilt. The 
very poor have only the large outer garment, called 
the abba, for a bed. They lie on one side of this and 
use the remainder for a cover. I have seen people 
asleep on the street in the cities of Palestine and 
Egypt with only the outer garment for bed and cov- 
ering. It was because of this custom of using the 
raiment for a bed that Moses stipulated in the law, 
"If a man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his 
pledge; in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge 
again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep 
in his own raiment." Deut. 12: 13. It was 
very common among the Jews to give part of their 
garments as a pledge for the payment of money bor- 
rowed; hence the law forbade the keeping of the 
raiment of the poor after the going down of the sun. 
Job, speaking of the works of the wicked, says : 



3l8 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

" They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, 
that they have no covering in the cold. They are 
wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace 
the rock for want of shelter." 1 Wealthy people in 
the East have quilts and mattresses filled with cotton 




A Street Sleeper. 



which they use for beds. In the bazaars in Jeru- 
salem may be seen the manufacture of the bedding 
in common use among the well-to-do people of the 
city, but any of these beds may easily be rolled up 
and carried under the arm or over the shoulder. 

1 Job 24: 7, 8. 



THUNDER AND RAIN IN HARVEST. 



319 



When the man sick with the palsy was being borne 
to the house and let. down through the roof into the 
room where Jesus stood, the sick was lying on a 
quilt or mattress as here described. The men would 
take the bed by its four corners and kneeling down 
on the roof would lower it as stated in the narra- 
tive. When the man was healed by the word of 
the Lord, at His command he rolled up his bed, 
placed it under his arm or across his shoulder and 
departed to his own house. The conditions to be 
found in Palestine to-day agree so precisely in de- 
tail with the incident here related that if our Lord 
were to come to Palestine to-day the same thing 
could be repeated, and in giving an account of it 
the same language could be used. 

Thunder and Rain in Harvest Time. 

Is it not wheat harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord, 
and He shall send thunder and rain ; that ye may perceive and 
see that your zcickcducss is great, which ye have done in the 
sight of the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel called 
unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: 
and the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. — 1 Sam. 
12: 17, 18. 

The children of Israel had sinned, and the proph- 
et in rebuking them gave them a miraculous mani- 
festation of the power of God. It was in the sum- 
mer and in the time when the harvest was being 
gathered, and he told the people that he would ask 
the Lord to send thunder and rain so that all the 



320 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

people might know that they had sinned and that 
God was not pleased with them. In our own coun- 
try if a prophet attempted to show his right to the 
name by saying he would call for rain in har- 
vest time he would at once be met with the fact 
that thunder and rain storms are of frequent occur- 
rence in the season of harvest. No one here would 
pay any attention to a prophetic claim based on a 
test of this kind. But in Palestine the conditions are 
such that the coming of a storm in the time of har- 
vest would be a miracle. The rainy season begins 
about the middle of November and ends not far from 
the spring equinox. Rainfall in the summer months, 
and especially during harvest time, is practically un- 
known. So when Samuel called upon the Lord and 
the dark clouds overcast the sky and the lightnings 
flashed, and the thunder rolled and the rain descend- 
ed, the people were amazed ; a great miracle had 
been wrought, and they all greatly feared God and 
His prophet. 

The Potter's Broken Vessel. 

And He shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel 
that is broken in pieces; He shall not spare; so that there 
shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to lake fire 
from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit. — Isa. 
30: 14. 

Inside the Damascus gate at Jerusalem I saw a 
potter sitting at his frame turning his wheel with 



THE POTTER'S BROKEN VESSEL. 32 1 

his foot. I made many visits to this potter, for here 
was in full operation the Bible description of the 
" potter who sitteth at his work, and turning the 
wheel about with his foot fashioneth the clay with 
his arm." By his side the potter had a pile of tem- 
pered clay mixed and ready for moulding. Taking 
a lump of the plastic material in his hand, he placed 
it on top of the circular board or wheel, Avhich re- 
volves horizontally, and turning the wheel with 
his foot he shaped the clay into a cone, then thrust- 
ing his thumb into the top of the cone the vessel 
began assuming shape under his hand and arm. 
By his side sat a water jar filled with water. Into 
this he occasionally dipped his hand and thus 
smoothed and shaped the vessel. The plastic clay 
yielded to his skillful touch, and he made of it such 
a vessel as best pleased him. Watching the pot- 
ter one finds the key to many Bible allusions to his 
work. Jeremiah 1 refers to the potter doing with the 
clay as seemeth good to him : " O house of Israel, 
cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. 
Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye 
in Mine hand, O house of Israel." If you watch the 
potter you will see him, once in a great while, mar 
the vessel he is forming, perhaps because he has 
not taken a sufficient amount of clay to finish it, or 

1 Jcr. 18: 6. 



322 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

for some other cause, and then he will change it 
from what he at first intended. So the prophet Jer- 
emiah saw the same operation and referred to it in 
these words : " And the vessel that he made of clay 
was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it 
again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter 
to make it." The pottery is very fragile and eas- 
ily broken, and is also very cheap. For a 
few pennies you may purchase a large water jar 
at Joppa or Jerusalem. To the cheapness of pottery 
is due the rule among the Jews to break an earthen 
vessel that has become unclean. The cost of purify- 
ing would be greater than the first cost of the ves- 
sel. " And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of 
them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; 
and ye shall break it." 1 

Dr. Thomson calls attention to the custom of tak- 
ing coals from the hearth and dipping water from 
the pit with pieces of broken pottery, called potsherds 
in the Bible. It is very common to find at the spring 
or pit pieces of broken jars, to be used as ladles, 
either to drink from or fill with ; bits of fractured 
jars are preserved for this purpose. If you will take 
your stand near any of the public ovens here in 
Joppa in the evening, you will see the children of 
the poor coming with sherds of pottery in their hands, 

1 Lev. ii : 33. 



WOMEN GRINDING AT THE MILL. 323 

into which the baker pours a small quantity of hot 
embers and a few coals with which to warm up their 
evening meal. Isaiah's vessels, however, were to be 
broken into such small bits that there would not be 
a sherd of sufficient size to carry away a few em- 
bers from the hearth, or to take water out of the 
pit. These comparisons are exceedingly expressive 
where the actions referred to are of constant oc- 
currence, as they are throughout this country at the 
present day. 1 

Women Grinding at the Mill. 

Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be 
taken, and the other left. — Matt. 24: 41. 

Nearly two thousand years have passed away since 
our Lord used the words in the text, and yet women 
are grinding at the mill in Palestine to-day as they 
did then. One is often led to exclaim, How re- 
markable it is that these old customs should have 
continued in the Holy Land for all these centuries 
without a single change. May it not be that the 
hand of God is in all this? In these things we have 
a wonderful proof of the truth of His Word, and 
now that the ancient customs spoken of in the Bi- 
ble have been photographed they are slowly pass- 
ing away. But the evidence is secure. The old-time 
hand mill is being superseded in many places by the 

1 The Land and the Cook, p. 37. 



324 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

modern mill. In Jerusalem I saw a very good steam 
mill in operation, with bolting apparatus and every- 
thing complete. Twenty years ago it was most dif- 
ficult to procure bolted flour in traveling through Pal- 
estine. Then in every village could be seen women 
grinding at the mill. I frequently put my hand to 
the mills in common use and found that it requires 
considerable strength to do the grinding. Two wom- 
en sit on the ground with the mill between them, 
and putting their hands to the long wooden pin in 
the outer edge of the upper stone it is turned around 
while the grain is fed into the hole in the center. 
So the grinding is done, and as one looks at the op- 
eration he is most forcibly reminded that he is wit- 
nessing a scene looked upon by Jesus when He was 
on earth, and that He used this very common occur- 
rence to illustrate one of the important truths which 
He taught to the world. 

Allusion is doubtless had to the millstone then in 
common use in Palestine when the Lord said : " It 
were better for him that a millstone were hanged 
about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he 
should offend one of these little ones." 1 I recall how 
very hard it was for me to understand this Scripture 
in my boyhood days. The only millstone I then had 
in mind was the great, heavy burr stones used in my 
father's ' mill in Maryland. The upper stone would 

1 Luke 17:2. 



PLOWING AND SOWING SEED. 327 

weigh not less than two tons. It seemed that it 
would be impossible to hang this immense mass of 
stone and stucco about a man's neck and cast man and 
stone into the sea. It was too much for my imagina- 
tion, and it was set aside as one of the mysteries of the 
Bible. But when I saw the hand and donkey mills of 
Palestine the mystery was solved, and the difficulty 
disappeared. The millstone weighing from fifty to 
one hundred pounds could easily be hanged about a 
man's neck and both thrown into the sea. The latter 
would render all hope of escape impossible, and do the 
work just as effectually as the heavy stones of my 
father's mill. The continuance of these ancient cus- 
toms makes a deep and lasting impression on the mind 
of the traveler as he journeys in the Land where the 
Book was written, and if he travels with open eyes 
and open heart to see and receive the truth, they afford 
him so many striking evidences that the Book is true. 

Plowing and Sowing the Seed. 

And Jcsns said unto him, No man, hazing put his hand to 
the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. — 
Ltike 9: 62. 

Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, 
some seeds fell by the zcay side, and the fowls came and de- 
voured them ap. — Matt. 13: 3, 4. 

The one-handled plows that have been in use on 

the plains and valleys of Palestine since the days of 

Abraham are still in use. The apt illustration used 

by our Savior in the text shows that the one-handled 



328 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

plow of to-day was used when He taught the great 
lessons of the Gospel nearly two thousand years ago. 
The plows I examined were very simple in con- 
struction. A strong, tough piece of wood about three 
and a half feet long serves as a post, to one end of 
which is fastened the plowshare and to the other the 




Plow of Palestine. 



handle. Near the center is mortised a hole, into 
which a long pole is securely fastened, which may 
be called a beam or, better still, a tongue. It is long 
enough to reach to the yoke on the necks of the 
oxen, to which it is fastened by a rope or piece of 
rawhide. One end of the post is sometimes armed 
with a piece of iron properly shaped. This is the 



PLOWING AND SOWING SEED. 329 

plowshare to which reference is made in Joel 3 : 10. 
The upper end of the post is fitted with a short, round 
crosspiece of wood, which serves as a handle. With 
one hand the farmer grasps the handle of his plow 
and with his oxgoad drives forward his yoke of oxen. 
He must look forward and not backward if he would 
plow. I tried the plow in Palestine, and I found that 
if I plowed at all I must pay the closest attention to the 
work in hand. On our prairies in the West one may 
plow and look back as many times as inclination sug- 
gests, but not so in Palestine. There, if he who 
puts his hand to the plow would accomplish any 
work, he must look forward all the time. The lesson 
taught by the Savior is apparent. The Christian must 
look forward, and not backward, if he is to become 
fit for the kingdom of God. 

On the plains of Sharon I saw the farmers plow- 
ing and preparing their fields for the seed, which the 
sower casts on the ground from his hand. Broadcast 
sowing is the proper term to apply to the operation, 
and as he nears the end of his field along which a 
roadway passes, some of the seed falls upon the hard, 
beaten track of the wayside. Here the birds soon 
discover it and it is quickly devoured. The other 
conditions named in the parable are all to be found 
in existing conditions in Palestine at the present 
time. The plowing, the seed falling on the wayside, 
among the thorns, on stony ground, and on good 



X 



33° THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

soil are all to be seen there to-day as they were wit- 
nessed by our Savior and used by Him in teaching the 
common affairs of life and the common people heard 
Him gladly, because He spoke to them in words which 
they could easily understand. 

Dwelling Places in the Tombs. 

And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there 
met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who 
had his dwelling among the tombs ; and no man could bind him, 
no, not with chains. — Mark 5: 2, 3. 

The tombs excavated in the solid rock were some- 
times used as dwellings for poor people, abodes for 
the insane and hiding places for criminals. Because 
of their extent they afforded excellent facilities for 
the latter class. In excavating the tombs an opening 
was made in the face of the perpendicular rock which 
served as a door to the chambers to be chiseled out 
within. The rooms varied in size, depending on the 
wealth and desire of the owner, and were from six 
to twenty feet square and six to eight feet in height 
from floor to ceiling. In the tomb of the kings at 
the head of the valley of Jehoshaphat is a chamber 
nineteen feet square. These inner chambers were ex- 
cavated with much labor and great care. The rock 
is a hard limestone and the chambers are cut out 
square as to floor, sides and ceiling. On either side 
of the walls are narrow cells or niches in which the 
bodies of the dead after being wrapped in grave- 



DWELLING PLACES IN TOMBS. 33 1 

clothes, were placed, in some instances each in its own 
receptacle. Sometimes the rooms were arranged with- 
out cells, and then stone coffins were set on the 
floor and the dead placed in them. 

For centuries the lepers at Jerusalem found lodg- 
ing places in the tombs around and about the city, 
which were no longer used for their original purpose. 
It was very natural that the man with an unclean 
spirit should have found a dwelling place in the cham- 
bers of the dead. South of Jerusalem and a short 
distance west of the junction of the valleys of the 
Kidron and Hinnom are a large number of tombs 
cut in the solid rock, having been excavated in an- 
cient times. Over some of these a building has been 
erected and when I last visited the place, during 
holy week in 1899, it was used as a lodging place 
by the Russian pilgrims who thronged the Holy City. 
One of the larger tomb chambers was being used 
by the enterprising cook as a kitchen. The cells or 
niches cut into the sides of the room, and once used 
as receptacles for the dead, served the cook as con- 
venient places for cooking utensils and for food for 
the living. In some of the chambers the bones of 
the dead are still to be seen, and taken all together 
it impressed me as being a ghastly lodging place. 

The Lepers and the Leprosy. 

And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, 
and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper 



332 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein 
the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: 
he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation 
be.— Lev. 13: 45, 46. 

And behold, there came a leper and worshiped Him, saying, 
Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus 
put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou 
clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. — Matt. 8: 
2, 3- 

The groups of lepers to be seen sitting by the 
roadside as you approach the towns and cities of 
the Holy Land are one among the most painful and 
pitiable sights to be witnessed in Palestine. At Jaffa, 
at Ramleh, at Jerusalem, at Nazareth, at Damascus 
and at many other places I have seen these poor, 
deformed, miserable wrecks and remnants of human- 
ity, sitting by the wayside with their deformities and 
unsightly sores exposed to public view crying out, 
in their abject poverty and misery, to the passers-by: 
" Poor, poor, unclean, unclean lepers ; please help us ; 
please give us alms." It is a sight that may well move 
the hardest heart to pity and sympathy, and once 
seen is never to be forgotten. As it was in the 
days of Moses, so now the lepers are compelled to 
find lodging places outside the camp or the walls of 
town or city. At Jerusalem a lepers'' home has been 
founded by good Christian people of Europe and the 
United States where the poverty-stricken, miserable 
lepers may find comparatively comfortable quarters. 



LEPERS AND LEPROSY. 335 

Previously they dwelt in the disused tombs around 
about Jerusalem. When one is known to have the 
leprosy he is at once separated from his family and 
driven from his home, and is virtually counted among 
the dead. If he have property it is administered up- 
on, his estate is settled up and his home and 
his place know him no more. After the separation 
the leper finds his home with those similarly afflict- 
ed and becomes one of the leper community. He is 
shunned and dreaded by all who once knew him 
and lives on the alms given by travelers and those 
in the towns who are able and willing to help them. 
When the ten lepers met our Savior they lifted up 
their voices from afar in entreaty and supplication 
for help, perhaps with the thought that He would 
give them money ; but He commanded them to go 
according to the law, and show themselves to the 
priests ; and as they went, behold, they were healed. 
As then, so now, the leprosy is incurable except by 
a special manifestation of divine power ; as then, so 
now, the lepers cry out, " Unclean, unclean," and 
raise their voices in entreaty for help as the trav- 
eler approaches them ; as then, so now, they are 
shunned by ail ; they live apart as already described, 
and subsist on the charity of the benevolently dis- 
posed. For more than three thousand years the con- 
dition of the lepers in the Bible Lands has remained 
practically unchanged. 



33^ the eternal verities. 

Dipping the Sop. 

Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when 
I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop. He gave 
it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. — John 13: 26. 

The dipping of a "sop " is common unto this day 
in the East. If you are invited to a feast among 
the Bedouins you will have a place at the side of the 
host at the meal. If he desires to show you special 
honor, he will take a choice bit of meat from the 
large dish with his fingers and place it in your 
mouth. In the same way he may also give you a 
sop when he has dipped it. A large dish contains 
the meat which is covered with a thick gravy. 
The entire mass has been cooked until it is easily 
separated with the fingers, for among these primi- 
tive people knives, forks or spoons are not in com- 
mon use. Thin slices of bread are dipped into the 
dish and soaked with the fluid part of the food, 
and this is the " sop " referred to in the text. The 
fact that our Lord dipped a sop in this way and 
gave it to Judas Iscariot shows that the traitor must 
have had a seat near the Master during the meal, 
since he was within reach of His hand. While the 
beloved John sat on one side of Jesus, Judas may 
have reclined on the other. The entire scene of 
the last supper is full of deep and absorbing in- 
terest, and a careful study ol the conditions sur- 
rounding a modern feast in Palestine shows the 



THE THRESHING FLOOR. 337 

humble and simple manner in which the Son of 
God instituted His great feast of love. 

The Threshing Floor. 

Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His 
floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn 
up the chaff with unquenchable tire. — Matt. 3: 12. 

The threshing floors in the Holy Land are now 
what they were when Christ was there, and what 
they were when king David, moved by the Lord, 
bought the possession of Oman the Jebusite on 
Mount Moriah, pointed out by the flashing sword 
of the angel of God, afterward to become the site 
of the great temple to be built by Solomon. Usu- 
ally an elevated spot is selected so that the wind 
may have free access to the floor and carry away 
the chaff when the farmer cleans his grain. The 
ground is made level and tamped until it becomes 
hard and solid, and then the sheaves of wheat are 
thrown upon the hard ground and the unmuzzled 
ox treads out the grain as he walks slowly and 
lazily over the floor, occasionally taking up a 
mouthful of grain and straw. The command, 
" Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out 
the corn," is quite literally observed to-day, as 
when it was first given, but there are just enough 
mean, stingy farmers in Palestine who begrudge 



338 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

the patient ox his share of the food and so muzzle 
him, thus giving force to the scriptural injunction. 

The cleaning of the floor, or rather the grain, 
is a very simple process. The fan referred to in 
the text is either a wooden shovel or a fork made 
of the same material. When the wind is blowing 
with sufficient force the husbandman goes to the 
threshing floor and with shovel or fork throws the 
grain and chaff high in the air, and the wind catches 
the chaff and drives it away. The Psalmist refers 
to this when he says : " The ungodly are not so ; 
but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." 
The process of throwing the grain into the air is 
continued until the floor is thoroughly purged and 
then the wheat is gathered into the garner. In 
some cases the garners are small cistern-like exca- 
vations made in the ground, and in these the tiller 
of the soil hides away his grain. As when the 
Bible was written, so now the robbers often carry 
away the hard-earned crop of the husbandman, and 
so he hides away his grain in the garners dug 
in the ground. The entire absence of rain during 
all the spring and summer months makes the open 
threshing floor and the garners here described pos- 
sible. Reference is made in the text to garnering 
the wheat, and the figure used is a most beautiful 
one. As the farmers hide away their grain from 
the enemy, the robbers, so the Lord hides away 



LILIES OF THE FIELD. 34I 

His wheat, those who love and serve Him, from the 
enemy of their souls. In His garner they rest se- 
cure, for they are dead and their lives are hid with 
Christ in God. 

Lilies of the Field. 

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, 
neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solo- 
mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Where- 
fore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, 
and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more 
clothe you, 0 ye of little faith ?— Matt. 6: 28-30. 

In all the towns and villages in Syria the village 
ovens are as common as the houses of the natives 
themselves, for almost every home has its own oven. 
Imagine a large jug that would hold from twenty to 
thirty gallons, remove the handle, cut a hole in 
one side large enough to put in the fuei and the 
bread ready to be baked, the neck and mouth of the 
jug serving as a chimney, the entire structure built 
of mud and shaped by hand, and you have a fairly 
correct idea of the oven of Bible lands. 

The lilies of the field and the flowers of the grass 
bloom in great profusion in Palestine. I have seen 
the hills and valleys covered with bright, beautiful 
flowers and am sure that even Solomon in the riches 
of his glory was not arrayed like the beautiful blos- 
som colored by the artist hand of God. In the 
morning the women go out, sickle in hand, and 



342 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

cut down the grass and the flowers thereof; and 
after it is dried in the heat of the day it is tied 
in small bundles and on the morrow it is cast into 
the oven to heat it for the baking of the bread. 
The grass and flowers burn rapidly and produce 
considerable heat, so that with this kind of fuel alone 
the oven is sufficiently heated to do the baking. 




As it was in the days of our Lord, so it is to-day. 
The flowers bloom in all their beauty to-day and 
to-morrow are cast into the oven. 




Gate Closed With a Wall. 



the gate closed with a wall. 345 

The Eastern Gate Closed with a Wall. 

Then He brought me back the way of the gate of the out- 
ward sanctuary which lookcth toward the east, and it was shut. 
Then said the Lord unto me, This gate sJiall be shut, and no 
man shall enter in by it.—Ezek. 44: 1, 2. 

The eastern wall of the city of Jerusalem, though 
built as late as the fourteenth century, stands on 
the foundation of the ancient or Solomonic wall. 
This has been abundantly proven by excavations 
made along the side of the outer eastern wall. The 
original foundation, laid by Solomon's workmen 
and bearing the marks of the Phoenician masons, 
was discovered, and all controversy as to the east- 
ern boundary line of ancient Jerusalem was ended. 
The present eastern wall, with its gates, stands 
upon the foundation laid by Solomon's workmen. 
In this wall is a gate closed with heavy masonry, 
and without doubt it is the gate east of the outer 
sanctuary spoken of in the text. Its position in 
the eastern wall, and its nearness to where the tem- 
ple with its outer sanctuary toward the east stood, 
settles this question. Why should this, of all the 
gates of the city, be closed? Why should the other 
gates of the city stand open day and night and this 
one in the eastern wall of the city, overlooking the 
valley of the Kidron, the garden of Gethsemaue and 
the Mount of Olives be closed so that no one can 
go in or come out thereat? These are questions 



34^ THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

that occur to the mind of every Bible student who 
visits Jerusalem and stands by the closed gate. 
The answer to the question is to be found in the 
words of the prophet : " This gate shall be shut, 
it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by 
it." As you stand by the gate, closed with solid 
masonry — and the photogravure given herewith 
shows it just as plainly as if you stood among the 
Mohammedans outside the gate — you have before 
you a wonderful fulfillment of a remarkable proph- 
ecy. 

Open Gates and Open Wall. 

Therefore thy gates shall be open continually : they shall 
not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the 
forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. — 
Isa. 60: 11. 

The walls surrounding the cities of Palestine were 
built as means of defense, and the gates were made 
strong and secure so as to withstand the attacks 
of the enemy. In times of war these were kept 
closed continually, so that the defenders of the city 
might not be surprised by the sudden attacks. In 
times of peace the gates were open from the ris- 
ing to the setting of the sun, and the belated trav- 
eler who sought admittance after the going down of 
the sun was compelled to call watchman and por- 
ter; and if he was entitled to entrance into the city 
a small gate in the larger one was cautiously opened 



OPEN GATES AND OPEN WALL. 349 

and the friend allowed to enter the city. This was 
the custom even in recent times, and it has been but 
a few years, comparatively speaking, since the gates 
of the city of Jerusalem have been left open con- 
tinually and have not been shut day or night. I 
have gone into the city in the evening, at midnight 
and in the early morning before the dawn of day, 
and have found the gates standing open. 

But not only are the gates of the city left open 
day and night, but a portion of the outer wall has 
been removed, and a roadway made so that one 
may now drive a carriage into the Holy City. In 
1898, when the German Emperor visited Palestine, 
the authorities ordered the wall between the Joppa 
gate and the Tower of David to be removed and 
a highway or street constructed so that the Em- 
peror's carriage might be driven into the city. Ac- 
cordingly this was done, and now the open space 
between the tower and gate, some forty feet in 
width, is taken up with a macadamized street 
which affords an excellent driveway in and out of 
Jerusalem. Prior to removing the wall and filling 
in the moat at the side of the tower a row of 
sheds stood on the south side of the narrow street, 
and these were used for shops and bazaars by 
tradesmen. The Joppa Gate, the Tower of David, 
the wall, the sheds and moat are all clearly shown 
in the first photogravure, while the second shows 



35° THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

shops and walls removed, the moat filled up and the 
open street passing out of the city between tower 
and gate. The pictures explain better than words 
can describe the situation before and after the re- 
moval of the wall and the opening of the street. 

It seems strange enough that while the eastern 
gate of the city overlooking the valley of Jehosha- 
phat and the Mount of Olives is closed, and no one 
may go in thereat, all the rest of the gates of Jeru- 
salem stand open continually, and that a portion 
of the western wall was removed so that an open 
street could be made. It would seem that here 
we have another literal fulfillment of prophecy; 
It is true that some think the words of Isaiah here- 
with quoted have only a spiritual significance, but 
it seems to me that they refer with equal force to 
the present condition at Jerusalem, and afford a 
striking illustration of the fulfillment of prophecy. 

The Sunken Gates. 

The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter 
of Zion. . . . Her gates are sunk into the ground; He 
hath destroyed and broken her bars. — Lam. 2: 8, 9. 

While the eastern wall of Jerusalem stands on 
the foundation laid by Solomon's builders, the 
southern wall of the modern city is far north of the 
ancient structure. Recent excavations have located 
the foundation of the southern wall of the ancient 



THE SUNKEN GATES. 353 

city. In 1898 I met Dr. Bliss at Jerusalem where 
he was engaged in excavating and tracing the foun- 
dation of the southern wall. With him I visited 
the excavations, climbed down the shafts and ex- 
plored the dark tunnels and saw the ancient foun- 
dations. At one point an ancient gate was discov- 
ered, and upon excavating about it, it was found 
that it occupied the site of not only one, but of 
two earlier gates. These three gates, one built 
above the other, are to be plainly seen. The first 
thrown down "sank into the ground/' as it were, 
and then the second was built above the first, and 
so also the third. I examined all this very care- 
fully and saw the sockets in which the gates were 
swung. " Her gates are sunk in the ground ; he 
hath destroyed her bars." The sunken gates of 
the wall of Zion bear testimony in these last days 
to the truth of the Book of God. 

The Wine Bottles of Palestine. 

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the bot- 
tles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: 
but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are pre- 
served. — Matt. 9: 17. 

The use of the skins of animals for bottles in the 
East is as old as the records of the human race. 
An ancient Assyrian sculpture, showing a woman 
giving drink to a child from what appears to be a 
kid skin, shows that bottles of this kind were in 



354 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

use before Abraham migrated to Palestine. The 
bottle which Hagar carried with her into the wil- 
derness and from which she gave Ishmael to drink 
was doubtless made of the skin of a kid and shows 
their early use for carrying water. Bottles of this 
kind were used for milk in the days of the judges: 
" And she opened a bottle of milk and gave him 
drink ;" and in Samuel we find them mentioned 
as being used for wine. Bottles of the same kind 
are still in use in Palestine. In 1893 I visited He- 
bron and while there saw where the skins were 
being prepared and made ready to serve as bot- 
tles. The Arabs use the skins of goats and kids 
for the most part, and when filled with liquid they 
very much resembles the shape of the animal. The 
skin is stripped from the body whole, the head 
being cut off, and a slit is cut lengthwise in the 
neck so that the body will pass through in the 
stripping process. This is afterwards sewed up, 
a piece of soft leather added, and the neck of the 
animal thus becomes the mouth of the bottle. The 
Arabs tan them with acacia bark, allowing the 
hair to remain on the skin, and this forms the out- 
side of the bottle. 

When large caravans cross the desert the water 
bottles are made from the skin of the ox and two 
of these filled with water make a camel load. The 
outside of the bottles is covered with grease to 



shishak's invasion. 357 

prevent leakage and evaporation. In using them 
for wine they must be quite new. The wine is put 
into them before fermentation is completed and 
when the skins are green they stretch and are 
strong enough to hold the expanding wine. 

Shishak King of Egypt. 

So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and 
took azvay the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the 
treasures of the king's house; he took all: he carried away 
also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. — 2 Chron. 
12: p. 

The record of the invasion of Judea by the king 
of Egypt is only briefly mentioned in the Bible, and 
yet this brief mention has been most remarkably 
corroborated by discoveries in the land of the Pha- 
,raohs. Jeroboam fled to Egypt and sought the pro- 
tection of Shishak and afterwards, no doubt incited 
by the fugitive king of Israel, he went up against 
the land of Judea and subdued it. He also took 
Jerusalem and spoiled the temple. After his re- 
turn to Egypt from his victorious Judean expedi- 
tion he caused a remarkable bas-relief to be carved 
on the great temple of Karnak, at Thebes, which 
had been profusely adorned by Seti I and Rameses 
II. The photogravure shows part of the sculpture. 
A close examination shows Shishak in his war cos- 
tume, in heroic size, " holding by the hair of their 



35§ THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

heads with his left hand thirty-eight captive Asi- 
atic chiefs, and with an iron mace uplifted in his 
right threatening them with destruction. Further, 
he has caused himself to be figured a second time, 
and represented in the act of leading captive a 
hundred and thirty-three cities or tribes, each spe- 
cified by name and personified in an individual 
form, accompanied by a cartouche containing their 
respective names. Among the ninety names that 
are legible, more than forty are to be identified 
with towns of Palestine named in the Bible. 

Referring to Shishak Wilkinson says : " He was 
the Shishak of Scripture, who in the fifth year of 
Rehoboam, B. C. 971, marched against Judea with 
twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horses, 
and a numerous body of infantry, composed of 
Libyans, Sukkiim, and Ethiopians : took all the 
walled towns of Judea, pillaged the temple at Jeru- 
salem ; and though no very extensive buildings 
were erected by him, the sculptures he added on 
the walls of Karnak suffice to show that this cam- 
paign is recorded with the names of the captured 
places." 1 

Brugsch, the great Egyptologist, says: ''The 
story of his campaign has been related on the south 
walls of the temple of Amen at Karnak. On the 

1 The Ancient Egyptian-, vol. t, p. 92, 



shishak's carved record. 363 

south external wall, behind the picture of the vic- 
tor, is a picture of king Rameses II ; to the east of the 
room called the Hall of Bubastites, the spectator 
beholds the colossal image of the Egyptian sover- 
eign dealing heavy blows upon the captive Jews. 
The names of the conquered towns and districts 
are paraded in long rows." 1 

Lenormant, the French writer, was the first to 
speak of the Jewish cast of face observable in the 
features of some of Shishak's captives. The writer 
was impressed the same way. On the second visit 
paid to the temple at Karnak a very careful ex- 
amination of the sculpture was made and the im- 
pression grew stronger that here on the wall of this 
ancient temple are to be seen faces bearing the 
Jewish type. One may very readily see that some 
of the faces are smoothly shaven, while others are 
represented with full beards. There is also the 
unmistakable Jewish nose to be plainly seen. The 
head of one of the captives of Rameses III is here- 
with given, and this is of the same general type 
as those referred to in the sculpture of Shishak. 

In this imperishable record carved in stone we 
have a remarkable confirmation of the Holy Scrip- 
tures. Not only the name of the king is given, but 
the names of towns which he conquered and the 

1 Egypt under the Pharaohs, pp. 375, 376. 



364 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



provinces which submitted to him are given. There 
is also the striking resemblance in some of the 
sculptured faces to the Jewish type of Palestine. 
Stronger corroborative testimony than this could 
not be found. 




Jewish Captive. 



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. 



The Conclusion. 

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, 
and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of 
man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with 
every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. — 
Reel. 12: is, 14. 

Brieffy, and with the imperfections attending all 
human effort, this sketch of the evidences of Chris- 
tianity has been written and compiled. It does 
not cover the entire ground of the Eternal Verities 
of God's Holy Book. In the great field, rich and 
abundant in testimony and evidence of the truth 
of the Bible, the gleaning has been done, and the 
precious grains of truth are given to the reader 
with the hope that the faith of the believer will be 
confirmed and made stronger and that he will be 
enabled to give with meekness and fear a reason 
for the hope which is in him, and that he who is 
troubled with doubts will be led into a clearer con- 
ception of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. If 
under God's blessing this should result from the 
reading of this little book it will be a cause of 
rejoicing on the part of all God's children, and 
more than recompense the labor of writing and 
compiling. 

365 



366 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

Together we have followed the history of the 
Bible from its beginnings to its final completion, 
and have found the chain of evidence touching its 
antiquity, its authenticity, and its credibility of 
such surpassing strength that it has remained Un- 
broken through all the centuries and will so re- 
main until every word of God's Book shall have 
been fulfilled. Like tracing a mighty river from 
its mouth to its source, we have historically traced 
the Bible from the present time to the holy men 
of God who wrote it as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost. As the river broadens and increases 
as it flows from source to mouth, so too the evi- 
dences of Christianity gain in volume as they flow, 
until they become an overwhelming force which 
must carry conviction to the heart of the honest 
searcher for the truth. 

Together we have considered the fulfilled proph- 
ecy of the Bible and have been astonished to find 
that its prophecies have become history. We have 
seen the Jews, a once powerful nation, broken up 
and scattered over all parts of the world, and, with- 
out a nation, without government of their own, 
without a central organization, they have retained 
all their peculiarities, so that an orthodox Jew of 
to-day is as was the Jew of the days of Christ and 
the time of Moses. We have seen great cities, the 
centers of wealth and of the w r orld's trade and com- 



CONCLUSION. 



367 



merce, become heaps of ruins in some cases, and so 
completely destroyed and obliterated in others that 
it is even impossible to determine to-day the site 
of their foundations, thus fulfilling to the letter, 
and in the minutest detail the prophecies of the 
Bible. 

We have examined the well attested and clearly 
proven miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ, a man 
approved of God among you by miracles and signs, 
which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye 
yourselves also know," to the end that we might 
not be left without evidence that He is the Son of 
God. Our hearts have been filled with sorrow be- 
cause of His cruel sufferings and His death on the 
cross, but how quickly the gloom passed away as 
we read the indisputable evidence of His resurrec- 
tion from the dead, and how joyfully we have fol- 
lowed Him as He went in and out among those He 
had chosen, " until the day in which He was taken 
up after that He through the Holy Ghost had given 
commandments unto the apostl'es." We have also 
journeyed together in the land where our Lord 
was born, lived, worked, suffered and died and rose 
from the dead, and have seen and been astonished 
at the wonderful agreement between the Land and 
the Book. 

Having examined the evidences of the truth of 
God's Holy Book, let us consider our obligation 



368 THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 

to study the Word of Truth and to make it the 
rule of our faith and practice. The importance 
of the revealed will of God concerning us as given 
in the Bible demands of us a careful, painstaking 
study. Its study should be entered upon in all 
seriousness and with a determination to know and 
do what God would have us know and do. " Search 
the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eter- 
nal life, and they are they which testify of me." 
These words of the Lord come to us with all the 
force of a divine command, and we should not fail 
to heed them. 

Let us study the Scriptures, not to confirm our 
own preconceived notions, but that we may know 
the truth, and knowing it follow wheresoever it 
leadeth. It may lead to the separation of church 
relations, but let us be bound to Christ by the tru- 
est of all tests, " He that loveth Me keepeth My 
commandments,*' rather than be bound to a church 
organization that fails to accept and obey that 
form of doctrine to which we have been delivered. 
In the great day of all days, when we shall stand 
before the Judge of all the world, the question 
as to what church I belonged to will disappear and 
in its place will stand the greater question, Have 
I obeyed from the heart the commandments of my 
blessed Lord? 



/ 



CONCLUSION. 369 

Let lis consider in the study of the Book our 
obligation and indebtedness to God in that He has 
given us a written revelation and that it contains 
the plan to salvation for all the human race No 
greater boon has come to us than salvation through 
our Lord Jesus Christ. For this one great bless- 
ing we might spend our lives in praising Him to 
whom all praise belongs, and in expressing our 
gratitude for His great love, and yet but a tithe 
would be given of what we owe Him for His great 
love and mercy. 

Let us study the Holy Scriptures to learn what 
God's will is concerning us, and, having learned, 
let us, without hesitation, follow in the footsteps 
of our Crucified and Risen Redeemer. Let us not 
be forgetful of the words of our Lord when He 
said, " Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but 
he that doeth the will of My Father which is in 
heaven." The Holy Scriptures being true, it be- 
hooves us to render cheerful, willing, loving obe- 
dience to all things whatsoever are commanded us 
in them. This is insisted on all the stronger be- 
cause the Lord Himself insisted so strongly on 
obedience to His Word. To John on the isle of 
Patmos He said : " Blessed are they that do His 
commandments, that they may have right to the 



37° 



THE ETERNAL VERITIES. 



tree of life, and may enter in through the gates 
into the city." 

Let us study the Scriptures daily and make the 
doing of the sayings of Christ our meat and our 
drink. Let us not only have an intellectual knowl- 
edge of God's Word, but a spiritual knowledge as 
well. We want the Bible not only in the head, 
but in the heart also. Christ was and is the Word 
of God. If we take His Word into our hearts, then 
we take Christ into our hearts, and obeying Him we 
grow day by day until we attain the full stature 
of manhood in Him. " If ye keep My command- 
ments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have 
kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His 
love. . . . Ye are My friends, if ye do whatso- 
ever I command you." 



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